I will follow the right side even to the fire, but excluding the fire if I can.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
This above all—to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Our words, our thoughts, and our feelings all contribute to the creation of our reality. Our word is a two-edged sword, it can create or it can destroy. To be impeccable is to create with conscious awareness and love. Ruiz also makes the point that our perceptions of others are merely reflections of ourselves. Therefore, to put another down or project negative words or energy towards another person, is to lash out at the other person because of our own insecurities. The human mind is fertile ground for the seeds that are our word. So plant the seeds of love, not fear. Judging, blaming, shaming, and especially gossiping create poison in ourselves and others. This agreement alone is enough to break all of your old agreements and change the dream of your life.
—Miguel Angel Ruiz (b.1952) Mexican Spiritualist Author
A ‘No’ uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a ‘Yes’ merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
I will never again go to people under false pretenses even if it is to give them the Holy Bible. I will never again sell anything, even if I have to starve. I am going home now and I will sit down and really write about people.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
Though of all poses a moral pose is the most offensive, still to have a pose at all is something.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Do not be inaccessible. None is so perfect that he does not need at times the advice of others. He is an incorrigible ass who will never listen to any one. Even the most surpassing intellect should find a place for friendly counsel. Sovereignty itself must learn to lean. There are some that are incorrigible simply because they are inaccessible: They fall to ruin because none dares to extricate them. The highest should have the door open for friendship; it may prove the gate of help. A friend must be free to advise, and even to upbraid, without feeling embarrassed.
—Baltasar Gracian (1601–58) Spanish Scholar, Prose Writer
But that’s always the way; it don’t make no difference whether you do right or wrong, a person’s conscience ain’t got no sense, and just goes for him anyway. If I had a yaller dog that didn’t know no more than a person’s conscience does I would pison him. It takes up more room than all the rest of a person’s insides, and yet ain’t no good, nohow.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won’t.
—Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) Polish-American Scientist, Philosopher of Language
A man should be upright, not be kept upright.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
Blessed is the servant who loves his brother as much when he is sick and useless as when he is well and can be of service to him. And blessed is he who loves his brother as well when he is afar off as when he is by his side, and who would say nothing behind his back he might not, in love, say before his face.
—Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) Italian Monk, Founder of the Franciscan Order
The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company.
—Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) American Elected Rep, Judge, Politician, Lawyer, Professor
It’s impossible to be loyal to your family, your friends, your country, and your principles, all at the same time.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
I’m a slow walker, but I never walk back.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
The commitments we make to ourselves and to others, and our integrity to those commitments, is the essence and clearest manifestation of our proactivity.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
Honor your commitments with integrity.
—Les Brown
Every man over forty is responsible for his face.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
I’ll tell you a big secret, my friend: Don’t wait for the Last Judgment. It happens every day.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top.
—Frank Moore Colby (1865–1925) American Encyclopedia Editor, Essayist
I would rather be right than be president.
—Henry Clay (1777–1852) American Politician
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
Every human being has, like Socrates, an attendant spirit; and wise are they who obey its signals. If it does not always tell us what to do, it always cautions us what not to do.
—Lydia Maria Child (1802–80) American Abolitionist, Writer
My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.
—Barry Lopez (1945–2020) American Essayist, Fiction Writer
Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of tricks and duplicity than straightforward and simple integrity in another.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
You can out-distance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you.
—African Proverb
There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience.
—French Proverb
Charisma becomes the undoing of leaders. It makes them inflexible, convinced of their own infallibility, unable to change.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
It is his nature, not his standing, that makes the good man.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
Honesty is the cornerstone of all success, without which confidence and ability to perform shall cease to exist.
—Mary Kay Ash (1918–2001) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
‘Tis better to suffer wrong than do it.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Don’t compromise yourself, it’s all you’ve got.
—Janis Joplin (1943–1970) American Singer-songwriter
There is an ongoing battle between conscience and self-interest in which, at some point, we have to take sides.
—Robert Brault
If at first you don’t succeed, do it like your mother told you.
—Unknown
There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have either a clear conscience, or none at all.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that somebody may be looking.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Have no fear of robbers or murderers. They are external dangers, petty dangers. We should fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices the real murders. The great dangers are within us. Why worry about what threatens our heads or purses? Let us think instead of what threatens our souls.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody is going to know whether you did it or not.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke great and good men for their conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of moral courage.
—William Lloyd Garrison (1805–79) American Journalist, Abolitionist
A magazine editor recently asked me to sit down on my 40th birthday and write an article on the most important things I had learned in my first 40 years. I told him that the chief thing I had learned was that the copybook maxims are true, but that too many people forget this once they go out into the heat and hustle and bustle of the battle of life and only realize their truth once one foot is beginning to slip into the grave. The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher