Ethical Basis Quotes

No true civilization can be expected permanently to continue which is not based on the great principles of Christianity.

Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.

Only Christianity and its teachings can explain the purpose and meaning of this world- and also gives the basis for right and wrong, good and evil, etc.

I'm pretty well grounded in Christian principles.

There is no safer anchorage for our learning, our lives, and our public actions than that provided by Divine teachings.

self-preservation is the primary and only foundation of virtue.

By themselves, character and integrity do not accomplish anything. But their absence faults everything else.

Know the difference between principles based on right or wrong vs. principles based on personal gain, and consider the basis of your own principles.

You are right in speaking of the moral foundations of science, but you cannot turn around and speak of the scientific foundations of morality.

Priestly was the first (unless it was Becarria) who taught my lips to pronounce this sacred truth--that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.

Of course, without God, there is no value to life. That leads to immorality, that leads to sexual abuse, and there is no hope.

As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality.

Where will you find any code of laws among civilized men in which the commands and prohibitions are not founded on Christian principles? I need not specify the prohibition of murder, robbery, theft, trespass.

Renunciation is the very basis upon which ethics stands.

My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing,' he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable 'the truth' can be.

Our virtues and view spring from one root.

Once you depart from the Ten Commandments as being the foundation of right and wrong, you are in a free fall.

The Ten Commandments are the most visible symbol because these commandments are recognized by Christians and Jews alike as being the foundation of our system of public morality.

The world rests on principles.

Your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy. Both your religion and policy must be based on it. Your honesty must be based, as the sun is, in vacant heaven; poised, as the lights in the firmament, which have rule over the day and over the night.

The foundation of culture, as of character, is at last the moral sentiment.

It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery. These may, perhaps, succeed for once, and borrow for awhile, from hope, a gay and flourishing appearance. But time betrays their weakness, and they fall into ruin of themselves. For, as in structures of every kind, the lower parts should have the greatest firmness--so the grounds and principles of actions should be just and true.

I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves. This ethical basis I call the ideal of the pigsty.