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Ethics

Sunday 29th of March 2026

Ethics The capitalist and consumerist ethics are two sides of the same coin, a merger of two commandments. The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’ Uyval Noah Harari, Sapiens © 2016 Kwiple.com
Ethics If it is within our power to prevent something very bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything morally significant, we ought, morally, to do it. An application of this principle would be as follows: if I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. Peter Singer, “Famine, Affluence and Morality” © 2017 Kwiple.com
Ethics It will come to nothing because there is nothing. Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu, 2017, on the latest corruption probe into his and his family's receipt of gifts from businessmen © 2017 Kwiple.com
Ethics Someone with an ethics of responsibility feels no right to foist the (predictable) consequences of his own actions onto others — he will say these consequenes are part and parcel of the actions themselves. Whereas under an ethics of personal conviction, one feels “responsible” for nothing but preserving the flame of pure conviction — for example, of protest against the injustice of the social order. … your actions are meant to have only exemplary value. Max Weber, “The Politician's Work” in Charisma and Disenchantment, translated by Damion Searls © 2020 Kwiple.com
Ethics There are a lot of killers. You think our country's so innocent? Donald Trump's so-what-so-do-we reply to Bill O'Reilly's statement that Vladimir Putin is a killer © 2017 Kwiple.com
Ethics We need to be clear that all ethically oriented action is guided by one of two  fundamentally different, irredeemably opposed maxims: either an “ethics of personal conviction” or an “ethics of responsibility.” … there is a deep chasm between acting according to normative demands [acting rightly, leaving the rest to God] … and … acting in a way that takes account of, and takes responsibility for, the (forseeable) consequences of one's actions. Max Weber, “The Politician's Work” in Charisma and Disenchantment, translated by Damion Searls © 2020 Kwiple.com
Ethics The time has come for all good men to rise above principle. attributed to Huey Long  © 2021 Kwiple.com
 
Ethics We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel, Nobel acceptance speech, 1986 © 2016 Kwiple.com