Action indeed is the sole medium of expression for ethics.
Interpretation
Ethics can only be expressed through our actions.
This quote by Jane Addams emphasizes the idea that ethical principles are not merely theoretical concepts; they must be demonstrated through our actions. It suggests that mere words are not sufficient to convey our moral beliefs; rather, it is our behavior that truly reflects our ethical values.
In practice
During a philosophy lecture discussing ethical theories, this quote can be introduced to underline the importance of action over words.
I might believe I had unusual talent if I did not know what good music was; I might enjoy half an hour's practice a day if I were busy and happy the rest of the time. You do not know what life means when all the difficulties are removed! I am simply smothered and sickened with advantages. It is like eating a sweet dessert the first thing in the morning.
America's future will be determined by the home and the school. The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.
I am not one of those who believe - broadly speaking - that women are better than men. We have not wrecked railroads, nor corrupted legislatures, nor done many unholy things that men have done; but then we must remember that we have not had the chance.
Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world.
National events determine our ideals, as much as our ideals determine national events.
If the meanest man in the republic is deprived of his rights,then every man in the republic is deprived of his rights.
I wonder if we are all wrong about each other, if we are just composing unwritten novels about the people we meet?
We profess to be strangers and pilgrims, seeking after a country of our own, yet we settle down in the most un-stranger-like fashion, exactly as if we were quite at home and meant to stay as long as we could. I don't wonder apostolic miracles have died. Apostolic living certainly has.
Every reign must submit to a greater reign.
Your Highest Self is not just an idea that sounds lofty and spiritual. It is a way of being. It is the very first principle that you must come to understand and embrace as you move toward attracting to you that which you want and need for this parenthesis in eternity that you know as your life.
The sorcerer's description of the world is perceivable. But our insistence on holding on to our standard version of reality renders us almost deaf and blind to it.
Analysis brings no curative powers in its train; it merely makes us conscious of the existence of an evil, which, oddly enough, is consciousness.
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