It’s better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a terrific cost.

Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.

Nonviolence is a good policy when the conditions permit.

So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.

Modesty forbids what the law does not.

Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth.

Our diplomacy and development budget is not just about reducing spending and finding efficiencies. We need a frank conversation about what we stand for as that ‚shining city on a hill.‘ And that conversation begins by acknowledging that we can’t do it on the cheap.

About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.

What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.

Ethics and power are separate.

To be is to do.

Weak character will neutralize all of the other possible good qualities a person might possess.

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

My principles are more important than the money or my title.

The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.

I have only one yardstick by which I test every major problem – and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?

Everybody thinks that when new technologies come along that they’re transparent and you can just do your job well on it. But technologies always import a whole new set of values with them.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

He that gives good advice, builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example, builds with both; but he that gives good admonition and bad example, builds with one hand and pulls down with the other.

Of two evils, choose neither.

Free speech is not just another value. It’s the foundation of Western civilization.

If one has a good disposition, what other virtue is needed? If a man has fame, what is the value of other ornamentation?

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

If you want someone to say, ‚She’s so sweet, and she’s so cute, and, honey, point your foot,‘ that’s not my school. You can go to the YMCA and have a nobody teach your kid if that’s what you want to hear.

States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.

Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good… Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.

The love of economy is the root of all virtue.

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

Nothing is more precious than independence and liberty.

One may no more live in the world without picking up the moral prejudices of the world than one will be able to go to hell without perspiring.

Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney.

I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

Traditions are a common part of our lives. They can be good, and not all traditions are wrong, but sometimes they can take the joy out of life.

Money can’t buy life.

To compromise simply means that you go a tiny bit below what you know is right.

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

Justice… is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.

I strongly believe that missionaries make better products. They care more. For a missionary, it’s not just about the business. There has to be a business, and the business has to make sense, but that’s not why you do it. You do it because you have something meaningful that motivates you.

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.

Respect is one of life’s greatest treasures. I mean, what does it all add up to if you don’t have that?

As we know, while our species remains alive, everybody has the sacred duty to be optimistic. Ethically, any other behaviour wouldn’t be admissible.

I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money’s sake.

There’s strong data that, within companies, the No. 1 reason for ethical violations is the pressure to meet expectations, sometimes unrealistic expectations.

Morality which depends upon the helplessness of a man or woman has not much to recommend it. Morality is rooted in the purity of our hearts.

The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.

The thing I really care about is the mission, making the world open.

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.

Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.

Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.