Ethics and Morality

Decide on what you think is right, and stick to it.

Circumstances do not make the man; they merely reveal him to himself.

Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one is to blame.

Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your own experience or convictions.

I have resolved that from this day on, I will do all the business I can honestly, have all the fun I can reasonably, do all the good I can willingly, and save my digestion by thinking pleasantly.

Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principals which direct them.

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.

I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened among all of the political men of our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit; not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by nonparticipation in what we believe is evil.

I respect Lenin as a man who gave all his energy, at a total sacrifice of his personal life, to dedicating himself to the realization of socialist justice. I don’t consider his methods appropriate. But one thing is certain: Men such as he are the guardians and renewers of mankind’s conscience.

Outside Russia, Lenin and Engels are of course not valued as scientific thinkers and no one would be interested in refuting them as such. The same might also be the case in Russia, except there one doesn’t dare say so.

I do not believe Mme. Curie is power-hungry or hungry for whatever. She is an unpretentious, honest person with more than her share of responsibilities and burdens. She has a sparkling intelligence, but despite her passionate nature she is not attractive enough to present a danger to anyone.

One should keep in mind that on average the moral qualities of people do not differ much from country to country.

My participation in the production of the atomic bomb consisted of one single act: I signed a letter to President Roosevelt in which I emphasized the necessity of conducting large-scale experimentation with regard to the feasibility of producing an atom bomb… I felt impelled to take the step because it seemed probable that the Germans might be working on the same problem with every prospect of success. I had no alternative to act as I did, although I have always been a convinced pacifist.

I am a dedicated but not an absolute pacifist; this means that I am opposed to the use of force under any circumstances except when confronted by an enemy who pursues the destruction of life as an end in itself .

I believe that the killing of human beings in a war is no better than common murder.

The bombing of civilian centers was initiated by the Germans and adopted by the Japanese. To it, the Allies responded in kind—as it turned out, with greater effectiveness—and they were morally justified in doing so.

No person has the right to call himself a Christian or Jew so long as he is prepared to engage in systematic murder at the command of an authority, or allow himself to be used in any way in the service of war or the preparation for it.

I know people in Germany whose private lives are guided by virtually unbounded altruism, but who were awaiting the declaration of unlimited submarine warfare with the greatest impatience… These people must be shown that it is necessary to have consideration for non-Germans as worthy equals, that it is essential to earn the trust of foreign countries, in order to be able to exist, that the goals that one sets for oneself cannot be achieved through force and treachery.

Force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels.

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted in important affairs.

The Nuremberg Trial of the German war criminals was tacitly based on the recognition of the principle: Criminal actions cannot be excused if committed on government orders; conscience supersedes the authority of the law of the state.

Thus I came… to a deep religiosity, which, however, found an abrupt ending at the age of 12. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true… Suspicion against every kind of authority grew out of this experience—an attitude which has never again left me.

He who is untrue to his own cause cannot command the respect of others.