A Quote by Jerry Pournelle

In any ethical situation, the thing you want least to do is probably the right action.

Jerry Pournelle

Quote Topics

Action Any Ethical Least Right Right Action Situation Thing Want

Quote Author

Jerry Pournelle
American - Journalist
August 7, 1933 - September 8, 2017

Listen, Harriet. I do unterstand. I know you don't want either to give or to take ... You don't want ever again to have to depend for happiness on another person." "That's true. That's the truest thing you ever said." "All right. I can respect that. Only you've got to play the game. Don't force an emotional situation and then blame me for it." "But I don't want any situation. I want to be left in peace.

Dorothy L. Sayers

I do not want you ever to initiate any action for any refunds of taxes without first consulting me and presenting the matter fully to me so that I may judge whether it is an honorable and ethical action to take, not simply legally, but according to my own personal standards.

Ernest Hemingway

Here is my challenge. Name one ethical statement made, or one ethical action performed, by a believer that could not have been uttered or done by a nonbeliever. And here is my second challenge. Can any reader think of a wicked statement made, or an evil action performed, precisely because of religious faith? The second question is easy to answer, is it not? The first - I have been asking it for some time - awaits a convincing reply. By what right, then, do the faithful assume this irritating mantle of righteousness? They have as much to apologize for as to explain.

Christopher Hitchens

It's not fundamentally different to any other genre, that action is a particular thing. Being able to do action sounds like it should be straightforward, but it really isn't. I always want the action to be witty. I don't want it to be merely routine.

Adrian Hodges

It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

Mahatma Gandhi

Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it's no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing.

Eckhart Tolle

What really sells a fight, and any kind of action, is the performance of it. If someone is uncomfortable or uncertain about doing action because they're too concerned about their safety or about being right, it pulls them out of being that character, in that situation.

Zoe Bell

Then, if action is possible or necessary, you take action or rather right action happens through you. Right action is action that is appropriate to the whole. When the action is accomplished, the alert, spacious stillness remains.

Eckhart Tolle

I can't. At least not for a while. I need time to get past this and I can't guarantee that I won't hurt him again. God knows, Nick has a true gift for saying the wrong thing in any given situation. (Acheron) You know he loves you, right? (Amanda) Yeah, but emotions don't have brains. (Acheron)

Sherrilyn Kenyon

"My #1 guiding principle for a successful life (learned from J Brad Britton): "Do the right thing; not the easy thing." Everyday, you are constantly faced with choices to do either the right thing (any activity that moves you closer to where and who you want to be) or the easy thing (anything else). In every moment of choice, choose to do the right thing over the easy thing, and your becoming successful is inevitable.

Hal Elrod

I think making a great action movie is one of the hardest cinematic endeavors. By definition, smart characters avoid action. Smart people don't go down dark alleys, but if you're making an action movie and you want to have an action sequence, somehow you have to get that character into that dangerous situation.

Doug Liman

Real morality is based on a single criterion: right action, appropriate action, in the present moment and present situation.

Brad Warner

Humans always have fear of an unknown situation -- this is normal. The important thing is what we do about it. If fear is permitted to become a paralyzing thing that interferes with proper action, then it is harmful. The best antidote to fear is to know all we can about a situation.

John Herschel

Being an economist is the least ethical profession, closer to charlatanism than any science.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

My least favorite thing or my pet peeve would be people who literally ignore the other people you're with, or the situation, and they just dive right in and cut off the conversation.