Quotes About Ethics

Rockefeller tended to portray himself as a hard-driving executive who went as far as the law allowed but not an inch further.

I don't see any harm myself in making a little money, provided that it can be done honestly and reasonably.

He sometimes represented poor people in criminal cases on a pro bono basis or was paid with just a barrel of ham.

For this reason, he never used his wealth to alleviate poverty directly and scorned any charity that smacked of social welfare.

As it turned out, Junior resigned from the bank board the following year, finding some of its practices questionable.

The certificate of deposit was more difficult to trace than a check and was the instrument of choice for political bribery.

To live with his own conscience, he told his father, he had to resign from the trust and devote his life to philanthropy.

Ambition was reckless if inspired by purely selfish motives but laudable if guided by great principles

Perhaps he did not think Junior could live with the moral ambiguities of a fortune extracted by dubious methods.

perhaps he had so thoroughly rationalized his own behavior that he saw himself in the same glowing, virtuous light as his son did.

the government should rein in irresponsible trusts but not meddle with good ones.

Imagining that the companies would be quite lucrative, Washington had no qualms about businessmen booking large profits as long as their work served the public weal and provided a model for future government action.

We must not press him for money.

Having been endowed with the gift I possess, I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money, and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to the dictates of my conscience.

Not "unless we find out . . . they have done something we regard as wrong

Paradoxically, it was the philanthropic effort that most frustrated him and most frequently violated his charitable principles.

The man born without honor placed a premium on maintaining his.

A man of irreproachable integrity, Hamilton severed all outside sources of income while in office, something that neither Washington nor Jefferson nor Madison dared to do.

In creating this self-protective structure, Rockefeller could run Standard Oil while simultaneously sidestepping responsibility, erasing incriminating evidence, and avoiding contact with his victims.

When confronted with well-documented cases of terror tactics used by subordinates, he blandly conceded some few indiscretions by overly zealous employees and cast himself as a helpless spectator.

We were beginning to prosper and I felt very uneasy at my name being linked up with these speculators.

Gates had to take account of the many things that Rockefeller had ruled off-limits, such as funding social-welfare agencies.

it used its prestige to stretch the limits of acceptable behavior

When it suited his convenience, Jefferson set aside his small-government credo with compunction.