Quotes About Rectitude

Donald Wryson was a large man with thinning fair hair and the cheerful air of a bully, but he was a bully only in the defense of rectitude, class distinctions, and the orderly appearance of things.

justice comes in many forms.

I say they had character because, while they did wrong things, they always tried to do them in the right way and at the right time.

Mi joven amigo, mucho me complace vuestra ignorancia; es tan valiosa como la doctrina de los demás: al menos no vivís en el error y, si bien no estáis instruido, sois susceptible de estarlo. Vuestro natural, la franqueza de vuestro carácter, la rectitud de vuestro espíritu, me agradan.

The only guide to man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.

Indulge in to what is right. Avoid what is wrong.

Where are they now that we, the men whom they sent off to war, have returned? These are commanders who have deserted their troops, and there is no more serious crime in the law of war. The Army says they never leave their wounded. The Marines say they never leave even their dead. These men have left all the casualties and retreated behind a pious shield of public rectitude. They have left the real stuff of their reputation bleaching behind them in the sun in this country.

One of the things that history is good for is puncturing our sanctimonious self-satisfaction about our own moral rectitude

unfortunately just

Never has a man who has bent himself been able to make others straight.

Rightly filled justice neither falls short nor brims over.

Now this peasant came to petition him a ninth time; he said: "O high steward, my lord! The tongue is men's stand-balance. It is the balance that detects deficiency. Punish him who should be punished, and none shall equal your rectitude. When falsehood walks it goes astray.

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.

We've had enough of pragmatists and self-seeking risk-takers. We need people of character.

Most of us can stay away from doing wrong, but few of us take on the challenge of doing right.

Do the right thing. It's that simple. Do the right thing when the right thing is not popular. Do the right thing when no one else is around. Do the right thing when temptation tells you otherwise. Do the right thing all the time.

A worthy man is not always a holy man.

For the good [person] to realize that it is better to be whole than to be good is to enter on a strait and narrow path compared to which his [or her] previous rectitude was flowery license.