Our traditional value systems rest too much on moral passivity and obedience, and on elitist and male-dominated interpretations of the good. Some of them are harmed further by a Western bias and by incomplete accounts of basic ethical values. Conscience must now become a global force for good, or we could well be gravely damaging ourselves and the natural environment that is our only lifeboat, and without which we have no future. Ethical living at every level- from the individual to the global - is the only way to achieve what we all want most: the deepest, richest and most sustainable well-being. At the heart of human goodness, of a life fired by conscience, are generosity, harmlessness and truthfulness as the right and good way to manage our daily lives at all levels - personal, familial, organizational, national and global. Human nature, science and our variegated moral heritage all support this contention, which logically leads to a set of core values that provide specific details for the content of ethical living.