Ethical Breach Quotes

It seems that in the world of politics, lying is not such a big deal.

The eight men who are survivors of the syphilis study at Tuskegee are a living link to a time not so very long ago that many Americans would prefer not to remember, but we dare not forget. It was a time when our nation failed to live up to its ideals, when our nation broke the trust with our people that is the very foundation of our democracy. It is not only in remembering that shameful past that we can make amends and repair our nation, but it is in remembering that past that we can build a better present and a better future. And without remembering it, we cannot make amends and we cannot go forward…. The United States government did something that was wrong—deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens.

The Enron scandal continues. The U.S. Senate has announced they are going to subpoena Ken Lay and make him testify. Apparently Lay received the subpoena this morning and then, out of habit, immediately shredded it.

The Judas of the West has closed the contract and will receive the thirty pieces of silver. . . . Was there ever witnessed such a bare faced corruption in any country before?

Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only of the particular injury to him who he deceives, but of the diminution of that confidence which constitutes not only the ease but the existence of society.

The great crime of the politicians is not just the corrosion of their own morality but the corruption they've caused to the American spirit.

It strikes me as bad manners for a magazine to accept one of my advertisements and then attack it editorially - like inviting a man to dinner then spitting in his eye.

Transgression of any kind is always accompanied by a loss of self-esteem.

When Corporate America finds a Jayson Blair in its midst, the standard operating procedure is to circle the wagons and deny that any form of liability extends up the chain of command.

These guys [the Catholic church] make Enron look like altar boys.

These people´s God has shown them by a million acts that he respects none of the Bible´s statues. He breaks every one of them himself, adultery and all.

What disturbed me most, frankly, about the Rod Rosenstein memo, is the fact it was addressed to the attorney general. The attorney general was supposed to have recused himself from anything involving Russia. And here he is recommending the firing of the top cop doing the Russia investigation, in clear violation of what he had, the attorney general, had committed to doing.

Breaking of norms and disregard for decency have huge, long-term costs.

Perhaps [transgression] is like a flash of lightning in the night which, from the beginning of time, gives a dense and black intensity to the night it denies, which lights up the night from the inside, from top to bottom, yet owes to the dark the stark clarity of its manifestation, its harrowing and poised singularity.

... a refugee from the Ethics Committee ... an ethically challenged individual ...

In transgressing the law of nature, the offender declares himself to live by another rule than that of reason and common equity.

Scandals have impacted many politicians' careers and aspirations. Some have survived, and others have fallen.

Life itself, however, flows and is sequential and punishes those who try to compartmentalize it. Thus if, for any reason whatsoever, moral standards are conspicuously and unprecedentedly breached in one area of society, such as the political, it will follow as the night the day that those standards will start collapsing all down the line-in sports, entertainment, education, the armed forces, business and government.

I believe that the financial crisis of 2008/9 exposed more a lack of ethics and morality - especially by the financial sector - rather than a problem of regulation or criminality. There were, of course, regulatory lessons to be learned, but at heart, there was a collective loss of our moral compass.

A lie is an act of theft. It steals peoples faith and makes them resent themselves

I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible.

I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me.

Cheating is bad. That's a big mistake I've made, and I've really hurt people. I've never lied about it, though. I've always been honest.

To speak of atrocious crime in mild language is treason to virtue.

The moment that you impose your will on another person or animal, that's when we are allowed to say you have committed an ethical breach.