Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Christopher Hitchens - Richard Dawkins - Albert Einstein - Immanuel Kant - Will Hutton - Roger Woodis - Albert Schweitzer - L Ron Hubbard - H G Wells - Daniel Dennett - Albert Camus - Earl Warren - The Office US TV - R Gillon - Rab C Nesbitt TV - Breaking Bad 2008-2013 - 1944: Should We Bomb Auschwitz? TV - Panorama TV -
Even the most rational approach to Ethics is defenceless if there isn’t the will to do what is right. Alexander Solzhenitsyn
I don’t believe that’s it’s true that religion is moral or ethical. Christopher Hitchens
What kind of ethical philosophy is it that condemns every child, even before it is born, to inherit the sin of a remote ancestor? Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion p251
Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience. Albert Einstein, The Laws of Science and the Laws of Ethics, 1950
I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it. Albert Einstein, reply to letter sent to him July 1953
A man’s ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. Albert Einstein, attributed
In law a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so. Immanuel Kant
Different ethical values apart from the market ethic must be protected: trust, fairness and the acceptance of obligations should not be seen as tiresome obstacles in the creation of economic efficiency, but as central to it. Will Hutton, The State to Come
Throwing a bomb is bad,
Dropping a bomb is good;
Terror, no need to add,
Depends on who’s wearing the hood.
Kangaroo courts are wrong,
Specialist courts are right;
Discipline by the strong
Is fair if your collar is white.
Company output ‘soars’
Wages, of course, ‘explode’;
Profits deserve applause,
Pay-claims, the criminal code.
Daily the Church declares
Betting shops are a curse;
Gambling with stocks and shares
Enlarges the national purse.
Workers the absentees,
Businessmen relax,
Different as chalk and cheese;
Social morality
Has a duality –
One for each side of the tracks. Roger Woodis, Ethics for Everyone
The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings. Albert Schweitzer
I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics. Albert Schweitzer
Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind. Albert Schweitzer
There is no more ethical group on this planet than ourselves. L Ron Hubbard
The ethical system which will dominate the world state will be shaped primarily to favour ... beautiful and strong bodies, clear and powerful minds, and to check the procreation of base and servile types ... And the alternative in right conduct between living fully, beautifully and efficiently, will be to die ... The men of the New Republic will have little pity and less benevolence. H G Wells, Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought, 1901
The problem is that no ethical system has ever achieved consensus. Ethical systems are completely unlike mathematics or science. This is a cause for concern. Daniel Dennett
A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world. Albert Camus
History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them. B R Ambedkar
More often there’s a compromise between ethics and expediency. Peter Singer
In civilised life, law floats on a sea of ethics. Earl Warren, New York Times 12th November 1962
That isn’t ethics. Ethics is a real discussion of the competing conceptions of the good. This is just the corporate anti-shoplifting rules. The Office US s5e3: Business Ethics, Osca
The first important point to emerge from this symposium is that information is essential for autonomous and therefore rational decision-making. One cannot reason or deliberate about alternative courses of action if one has no information about them ... patients are likely to make irrational decisions if their doctors gives them inadequate information. R Gillon (1983), 9 Journal of Medical Ethics 131
He doesn’t want ethics. That’s why he’s gone private. Rab C Nesbitt: Wean s3e4, Rab with Jamie to doctor, BBC 1993
Did you actually use the word ethically in a sentence? Breaking Bad s5e1: Blood Money, Walter to Saul, AMC 2012
Nazi occupied Poland: In April 1944 with the outcome of World War II hanging in the balance two Jewish prisoners lay hidden near the outer fence of Auschwitz concentration camp. On 10th April 1944 they abandoned their hiding place and cut through the fence … ‘They escaped in order to warn the world that Auschwitz was a killing mechanism.’ 1944: Should We Bomb Auschwitz? Professor Michael Berenbaum, historian, BBC 2019
One of the greatest moral questions of the 20th century: 1944: Should we bomb Auschwitz? ibid.
‘Auschwitz should have had the most outrageous response while it was happening, and that’s a moral failure on the West.’ ibid. Barenbaum
Why was the greatest crime of the 20th crime of modern history allowed to proceed unimpeded for almost two years? A million Jews perish there by gas. It wasn’t because of lack of evidence. ibid.
‘Some of the groups would be frightened and disorientated, others would be almost relieved.’ ibid. prisoner eye-witness escapee
Rabbi Weissmandl: An appeal for help but also a rebuke for those who refuse … He demanded that the Allied air forces bomb Auschwitz. He was the first to do so. ibid.
June 1944: A month after the deportations from Hungary began, 109 trains had arrived at Auschwitz, with an average of 2975 Jews per train. ibid. caption
‘The first thing was – you breathe in and there’s a very strange smell. It was sort of sweetish and burning.’ ibid. on arrival at Auschwitz
David Cameron and the missing billions. The former prime minister promoted his friends’ controversial investment schemes. We reveal the truth about Lex Greensill’s dodgy deals. How UK tax-payers could lose hundreds of millions. And how David Cameron pocketed a fortune. Panorama: Cameron and the Missing Billions, BBC 2021
This is a story of a former British prime minister and a dodgy scheme that could cost investors billions. ibid.
This used to be the headquarters of Greensill Bank until it went bust earlier this year. The bank’s offices and the homes of its former bosses have been raided by police. Billions of savers’ cash looks to be lost. ibid.
The bank was part of a British-based investment company – Greensill Capital. ibid.
There had already been allegations in the press about some of Greensill’s investment schemes … With David Cameron on board, Greensill Capital attracted billions from investors. Their money was supposed to be safe. ibid.
Greensill made loans to businesses that were waiting to be paid for goods and services they had supplied to customers. But it didn’t use its own cash; the money for the loans was raised from investors, and Lex Greensill brought in a famous friend to drum up business. ibid.
The invoices simply didn’t exist. ibid.