Integrity & Character

Character is destiny

Who we are when no one is watching: the alignment of word, conscience, and action.

20th century, France

Existential Feminism

There is only one good. And that is to act according to the dictates of one's conscience.

Simone de Beauvoir The Ethics of Ambiguity

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20th century, Britain

Analytic Philosophy & Humanism

How much good it would do if one could exterminate the human race.

Bertrand Russell The Conquest of Happiness

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18th century, Prussia

Enlightenment Deontology

The death of dogma is the birth of morality.

Immanuel Kant Critique of Practical Reason

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5th century BCE, China

Classical Chinese Strategy

The enlightened ruler is heedful, and the good general full of caution.

Sun Tzu The Art of War

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1st century BCE, Rome

Roman Republican Humanism

Honesta enim bonis viris, non occulta quaeruntur.

Cicero De Officiis & Tusculan Disputations

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4th–5th century CE, North Africa

Patristic Theology

The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.

Augustine of Hippo Confessions

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17th century, France

Jansenist Philosophy & Mathematics

Nature, which alone is good, is wholly familiar and common.

Blaise Pascal Pensées

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2nd century CE, Rome

Roman Stoicism

What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.

Marcus Aurelius Meditations

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1st century CE, Rome

Roman Stoicism

Seneca's virtue shows forth so live and vigorous in his writings, and the defense is so clear there against some of these imputations, as that of his wealth and excessive spending, that I would not believe any testimony to the contrary.

Seneca Moral Letters to Lucilius

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1st century CE, Hierapolis

Greek Stoicism

If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.

Epictetus Discourses & Enchiridion

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5th century BCE, Athens

Classical Greek Philosophy

The being of all virtues, and chiefly of temperance, depends on the practice of them.

Socrates Apology (via Plato)

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4th century BCE, Athens

Platonic Academy

Then we may begin by assuming that there are three classes of men—lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, lovers of gain?

Plato The Republic & Dialogues

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4th century BCE, Stagira

Peripatetic Philosophy

While both are dear, Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.

Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics

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5th century BCE, China

Confucianism

Honesty and trust are promoted, and good neighborliness cultivated.

Confucius The Analects (Lunyu)

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6th century BCE, China

Classical Taoism

A leader is best when people barely know he exists; Not so good when people obey and acclaim him; worst when they despise him; but a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say "We did it our selves!

Laozi Tao Te Ching

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4th century BCE, China

Classical Taoism

The sage finds his place as a quail settles. ... If the whole world has the Tao, he is part of that well-being. When the whole world has lost the Tao, he develops virtue and avoids involvement.

Zhuangzi Zhuangzi

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5th century BCE, India

Buddhism

Blessing! Neither fire, nor moisture, nor wind can destroy the blessing of good deeds, and blessings enlighten the whole world.

Gautama Buddha Dhammapada & Sutta Pitaka

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13th century, Persia/Anatolia

Sufi Mysticism

The cure for pain is in the pain.Good and bad are mixed. If you don't have both,you don't belong with us.

Rumi Masnavi & Divan-e Shams

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19th century, Germany

Continental & Existential Philosophy

Morality is herd instinct in the individual.

Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra & Beyond Good and Evil

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19th century, Denmark

Christian Existentialism

If the ethical – that is, social morality – is the highest ... then no categories are needed other than the Greek philosophical categories.

Søren Kierkegaard Either/Or & Journals

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19th century, Germany

German Idealism & Pessimism

David Strauss, reflecting on civilization's true measure, argues that a nation's treatment of animals reveals its moral standing, praising Schopenhauer's empathy.