Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values, like you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond; that you do what you say you’re going to do. That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them and even if you don’t agree with them.

Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.

It’s very hard to live with yourself if you don’t stick with your moral code.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

Honesty is the best policy.

Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.

A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.

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

An honest man’s the noblest work of God.

Let me define a leader. He must have vision and passion and not be afraid of any problem. Instead, he should know how to defeat it. Most importantly, he must work with integrity.

A faithful woman can become a devoted daughter of God – more concerned with being righteous than with being selfish, more anxious to exercise compassion than to exercise dominion, more committed to integrity than to notoriety. And she knows of her own infinite worth.

Ability without honor is useless.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

The time has come for all evangelists to practice full financial disclosure. The world is watching how we walk and how we talk. We must have the highest standards of morality, ethics and integrity if we are to continue to have influence.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory.

To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.

I’ve never been a manipulator, even in my bachelor days. I never wanted to do things to people that could catch up with me later on.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.

Why lie? I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say the opposite of what I think, like some others do.

Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.

No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor.

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

There are few things more dishonorable than misleading the young.

I stand by all the misstatements that I’ve made.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

The truth is, hardly any of us have ethical energy enough for more than one really inflexible point of honor.

Character is always known. Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls.

No such thing as a man willing to be honest – that would be like a blind man willing to see.

Everyone assumes I practise all of my own laws but I don’t. I think anybody who did would be a horrible ugly person to be around.

I believe that economics is based on scarcity of markets. And it’s possible to monetize your art without compromising the integrity of it for commerce.

Power is not alluring to pure minds.

A gentleman would be ashamed should his deeds not match his words.

The more people rationalize cheating, the more it becomes a culture of dishonesty. And that can become a vicious, downward cycle. Because suddenly, if everyone else is cheating, you feel a need to cheat, too.

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.

I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never make a misleading statement. I’ll never betray the confidence that any of you had in me. And I’ll never avoid a controversial issue.

In the game of cricket, a hero is a person who respects the game and does not corrupt the game. The one who doesn’t or corrupts the game, they are the villain. They should be punished, and they have been punished in the past.

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 believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

The best thing is to always keep honest people around, because when you have a bunch of yes men around that know that you’re making a mistake but let you go on with it, that’s when it ruins your mind state as an artist.

We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

My brother Bob doesn’t want to be in government – he promised Dad he’d go straight.

Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.

Seek not the favor of the multitude; it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of few; and number not voices, but weigh them.

Occasionally the conflict between ‚what we stand for‘ and ‚what we do‘ has been forthrightly addressed.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.

Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.

Don’t lie about anything, ever. Lying leads to Hell.

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.

A lie cannot live.

Good governance with good intentions is the hallmark of our government. Implementation with integrity is our core passion.