University of Illinois
University Ethics Office
B. Joseph White
"...My most important possession is integrity, personal integrity."
Ethics Quotes
A
Jane Addams
"Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics."
Aristotle
"We should behave to others as we wish others to behave to us."
Isaac Asimov
"Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."
Marcus Aurelius
"If it is not right do not do it; If it is not true do not say it."
Massad Ayoob
"You're born with intelligence, but not with ethics."
B
Thomas Babington
"The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out."
Henry Ward Beecher
"Expedients are for the hour, but principles are for the ages."
Edmund Burke
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
C
Chinese Proverb
"Clear conscience never fears midnight knocking."
Winston Churchill
"There is only one duty, one safe course, and that is to try to be right."
D, E
Dwight David Eisenhower
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
J.R. Ewing ("Dallas" television show)
"When you throw out integrity the rest is easy."
F
Benjamin Franklin
"Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never mended well."
G, H
Thomas H. Huxley
"It is not who is right, but what is right that is of importance."
I, J
Thomas Jefferson
"Relativity applies to physics, not ethics."
"The only thing a man can take beyond this lifetime is his ethics."
Michael Josephson
"An ethical person ought to do more than he's required to do and less than he's allowed to do."
K
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The time is always right to do what is right."
L
Abraham Lincoln
"Honor is better than honors."
M
Edwin Markham
"We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life."
N, O, P
Price Pritchett
"Notice that "I" is at the center of the word "ethical." There is no "they." Achieving the ethics of excellence is our individual assignment."
"Excellence never happens by accident. We have to make it happen. And our methods matter every bit as much as our results."
"Be a cheerleader for ethical champions."
"Your ethical muscle grows stronger every time you choose right over wrong."
"You can't put someone else in charge of your morals. Ethics is a personal discipline."
"Permit mistakes so you don't promote cover ups."
"Bear the blame for your behavior."
"Don't say what you believe about ethics...show what you believe."
Q, R
Michael Rion
"Ethics at work is often not the simple choice of right versus wrong, but of reconciling competing 'rights'."
"Your first ethical obligation is to be good at what you do."
"Workplace pressure should never put ethics on hold."
"Ethical dilemmas often arise as the unintended consequences of well-intentioned actions, not from unethical motives."
"Responsible management has always been the right thing to do. In the long run, it is also a business necessity."
S, T
Mark Twain
"Always do right -- this will gratify some and astonish the rest."
"To be good is noble. To teach others to be good is nobler...and no trouble."
Henry David Thoreau
"The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think is right."
U
Unknown
"Do nothing against one's conscience."
"In this world everything changes except good deeds and bad deeds; these follow you as the shadow follows the body."
V, W
B. Joseph White
"...My most important possession is integrity, personal integrity."
X, Y, Z
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