Quotes About Ethics

I won't sell influence and I'm perfectly willing to be cussed if I'm right.

My early choice in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference.

Nixon is one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.

I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.

There is a right kind and wrong kind of victory, just as there are wars for the right thing and wars that are wrong from every standpoint…. The kind of victory MacArthur had in mind—victory by the bombing of Chinese cities, victory by expanding the conflict to all of China—would have been the wrong kind of victory.

My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference.

Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in.

I never would have agreed to the formulation of the Central Intelligence Agency back in forty-seven, if I had known it would become the American Gestapo.

If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don't want to see Hitler victorious under any circumstances.

You can't get rich in politics unless you're a crook. - Harry S. Truman

Be good. Do good. The devil wields no power over a good man.

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?

Fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident, riches take wings, those who cheer today may curse tomorrow and only one thing endures - character.

Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I'll show you a crook.

I hope for some sort of peace—but I fear that machines are ahead of morals by some centuries and when morals catch up there'll be no reason for any of it.

I hadn't ought to say this but he's [Billy Graham] one of those counterfeits I was telling you about. He claims he's a friend of all the Presidents, but he was never a friend of mine when I was President. I just don't go for people like that. All he's interested in is getting his name in the paper.

What does not corrupt a man's heart cannot corrupt his life, or do him any lasting harm.

Never, never be afraid to do what is right. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our souls when we look away. —Martin Luther King Jr

I'm a writer. I don't support any war. That's my principle.

I don't want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.

It was the Prophet (saas) who said "I was sent to perfect good character"2 and "By One in whose hand there is my life: None shall enter Paradise except one who has got good conduct."3

Managers who aspire to be ethical must challenge the assumption that they're always unbiased and acknowledge that vigilance, even more than good intention, is a defining characteristic of an ethical manager.

Do your organization's ethics resonate with your own values? If not, your career will likely be marked by frustration and poor performance.

She is the kind and friendly sort, but I'm an old man at this point, so it would be useless and somewhat illegal if I asked her out.