An honest man’s the noblest work of God.

At age nine, I got a paper route. Sixty-six papers had to be delivered to sixty-six families every day. I also had to collect thirty cents a week from each customer. I owed the paper twenty cents per customer per week, and got to keep the rest. When I didn’t collect, the balance came out of my profit. My average income was six dollars a week.

To deal with individual human needs at the everyday level can be noble sometimes.

I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth to see it like it is, and tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth.

Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.

If you work hard and play by the rules, this country is truly open to you. You can achieve anything.

To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.

If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.

My thing is this; if I’m sick enough to think it, then I’m sick enough to say it.

I want to be a man who is truthful and who won’t let pride get in the way of my ripping myself open to my partner and saying, ‚Here I am. This is me.‘ I feel there’s something powerful when a man reaches a point in his life when he can be completely vulnerable.

You know, my family and friends have never been yes-men: ‚Yes, you’re doing the right thing, you’re always right.‘ No, they tell me when I’m wrong, and that’s why I’ve been able to stay who I am and stay humble.

The truth doesn’t hurt unless it ought to.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

Virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason.

The skin of my character in ‚The Man Who Fell to Earth‘ was some concoction, a spermatozoon of an alien nature that was obscene and weird-looking.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.

Lenience will operate with greater force, in some instances than rigor. It is therefore my first wish to have all of my conduct distinguished by it.

My work is the only ground I’ve ever had to stand on. To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation, but I’m working on the foundation.

There are few things more dishonorable than misleading the young.

I don’t think there is anything wrong in earning money from the sport you love. If you work hard and get benefits from it, there is no harm. The day you feel that you are not working hard and are only looking at the benefits, that’s where the problem is.

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

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.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.

Concentration is my motto – first honesty, then industry, then concentration.

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

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

There is a blessed necessity by which the interest of men is always driving them to the right; and, again, making all crime mean and ugly.

No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.

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.

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

I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president – with the possible exceptions of Johnson, FDR, and Lincoln – just in terms of what we’ve gotten done in modern history. But, you know, but when it comes to the economy, we’ve got a lot more work to do. And we’re gonna keep on at it.

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

A vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. Men who are easy as an old shoe are generally of little worth.

As a producer, as a CEO of Hartbeat Productions, I am making deals to put my company in place to win, to put my staff to work so that while all this stuff is going on, they’re in the kitchen cooking. So it’s understanding the longevity of the entertainment business; you get out of it what you put into it.

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.

I suppose my best attribute, if you want to call it that, is sincerity. I can sell sincerity because that’s the way I am.

Character is destiny.

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

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.

I’ll be honest: I haven’t ruled politics out.

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.

People who don’t know the true character of God – who don’t believe He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger – can never have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Him.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

Every person has a longing to be significant; to make a contribution; to be a part of something noble and purposeful.

Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.

This above all; to thine own self be true.

There are many times when a woman will ask another girl friend how she likes her new hat. She will reply, ‚Fine,‘ but slap her hand to her forehead the minute the girl leaves to yipe, ‚What a horror!‘

Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.