A quote by the Dali Lama

We have the ability and the responsibility to choose to direct our actions on a virtuous path.
When we weigh a particular act, to determine whether it is moral or spiritual, our criterion should be the quality of our motivation. When someone deliberately makes a resolution not to steal, if he or she is simply motivated by the fear of getting caught and being punished by the law, it is doubtful whether engaging in that resolution is a moral act, since moral considerations have not dictated his or her choice.
In another instance, the resolution not to steal may be motivated by fear of public opinion: "What would my friends and neighbors think? All would scorn me. I would become an outcast." Though the act of making a resolution may be positive, whether it is a moral act is again doubtful.
Now, the same resolution may be taken with the thought "If I steal, I am acting against the divine law of God." Someone else may think, "Stealing is nonvirtuous; it causes others to suffer." When such considerations motivate one, the resolution is moral or ethical; it is also spiritual. In the practice of Buddha's doctrine, if your underlying consideration in avoiding a nonvirtuous act is that it would thwart your attainment of a state transcending sorrow, such restraint is a moral act.
-- by the Dalai Lama, edited by Nicholas Vreeland, from An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life