Quotes About Integrity

In his business career, John D. Rockefeller was accused of many sins, but he took pride in paying his debts promptly and abiding strictly by contracts.

Even later, as a private citizen, he said that his own "scrupulousness" had prevented him from "being concerned in what is termed speculation."9 This made his blindness to Duer's shameless machinations the more bewildering. Hamilton was an extremely perceptive judge of character, and William Duer was one of the few cases in which his acute vision seems to have been blinkered.

Rockefeller even hesitated to punish serious offenses and instead of prosecuting the occasional embezzler simply dismissed him.

If she suspected wrongdoing, she kept it to herself to spare the children.

He did not boast. I have never heard him boast.

Was Lamont's reluctance simple candor—or splendid calculation?

businessmen respected them for their honest dealings.

With such men at the helm, the GEB, for all its good works, would fall considerably short of heaven.

begged the larger question of whether people should accept money gained by what they deemed unscrupulous means.

What mattered was that people trusted the government to make good on repayment: "In nothing are appearances of greater moment than in whatever regards credit. Opinion is the soul of it and this is affected by appearances as well as realities.

Hamilton had analyzed his own rejection thus: "I am a stranger in this country. I have no property here, no connections. If I have talents and integrity…these are justly deemed very spurious titles in these enlightened days.

Tell the truth, because sooner or later the public will find out anyway. And if the public doesn't like what you are doing, change your policies and bring them into line with what people want.

I believe it my duty to a good many people who have been blackmailed by doctors to stand a trial.

It was too easy to camouflage selfish impulses by invoking a higher cause as the real cause.

Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, a bespectacled Republican with a grizzled beard, who was born in Concord, Massachusetts, and attended Harvard College and Law School. A former member of the Free-Soil Party, an upright gentleman of starchy integrity, he had served on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court where he used sarcasm to savage lesser mortals. "When on the bench," wrote an observer, "he was said to be unhappy because he could not decide against both litigants.

That he would give $100,000 one minute to charity and turn around and haggle over the price of a ton of coal.

Never under any circumstances do an action which could be called in question if known to the world.

He avoided a gaudy residence and had no desire to impress other people.

The photograph captured the man whole.

Frank advised his friend not to sell under any circumstances.

Led by Gates, these subordinates guaranteed that the Rockefeller millions were donated or invested scrupulously.

Junior's presence at 26 Broadway further ensured that father would behave more ethically than in the past.

By remaining silent in the face of criticism, he thought he would seem confident and secure in his integrity—in fact, he seemed guilty and arrogantly evasive.

At this, Hamilton dropped any pose of civility and chastised Monroe, saying "your representation is totally false.