We need ethics to come to goodness

It is said, ‘tada rajas­tamo­ bhavah kama­lobhadayas ca ye.’ When one is afflicted with the base material modes of nature, namely rajo­guna and tamo­guna, then he becomes greedy and lusty. So ethics require to get out of the clutches of greediness and lusty desires. Then he comes to the platform of goodness, which will help him to go to the platform of spiritual life.

Dialectic Spiritualism: A Vedic View of Western Philosophy(Prabhupada Books, 1985), conversation about Socrates