Life is about conduct and how we conduct ourselves. But two wrongs never make a right.

Of course, when I say that human nature is gentleness, it is not 100 percent so. Every human being has that nature, but there are many people acting against their nature, being false.

A gentleman is never rude except on purpose – I can honestly be nasty sober, believe you me.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

I still learn, but I think it’s the best thing in life to have a kid.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

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.

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.

People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent.

Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?

Experience teaches only the teachable.

There are some loony people in this world!

Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.

Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.

Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.

Younger scientists are extremely sensitive to the moral implications of all they do.

All the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and so on, are summed up in this single command: You must love your neighbor as yourself.

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

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

For how many things, which for our own sake we should never do, do we perform for the sake of our friends.

When new turns of behavior cease to appear in the life of the individual, its behavior ceases to be intelligent.

You don’t sign up for a divorce when you get married. It’s very painful. But it’s taught me a great deal about myself.

When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

Of course, like anybody I repeat myself endlessly, but I don’t know that I’m doing it, usually.

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.

Action is character.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.

It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims.

There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.

Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

When you look at a corporation, just like when you look at a slave owner, you want to distinguish between the institution and the individual. So slavery, for example, or other forms of tyranny, are inherently monstrous. The individuals participating in them may be the nicest guys you can imagine.

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

The rulers of the state are the only persons who ought to have the privilege of lying, either at home or abroad; they may be allowed to lie for the good of the state.

That old law about ‚an eye for an eye‘ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.

It is right to give every man his due.

There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

Juvenile crime is not naturally born in the boy, but is largely due either to the spirit of adventure that is in him, to his own stupidity, or to his lack of discipline, according to the nature of the individual.

The thing that alarms me is that there are so many clergymen who say that the so-called ‚new morality‘ is all right. They say we’re living in a new generation; let’s be relevant, let’s change God’s law. Let’s say that adultery is all right under certain circumstances; fornication’s all right under certain circumstances. If it’s ‚meaningful.‘

I think big business is a terrible thing for the spirit of the country, as our spirit is the best thing about us.

To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy.

Justice is truth in action.

We cannot learn men from books.

Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.

Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.

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.

What you put into life is what you get out of it.

Effective action is always unjust.

A strong argument for the religion of Christ is this – that offences against Charity are about the only ones which men on their death-beds can be made – not to understand – but to feel – as crime.

Where the mind goes, the man follows.

Rigid, the skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame.

If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

The test of a man or woman’s breeding is how they behave in a quarrel.