Jean de La Fontaine Quotes

Every night I go over what I did in the day, in ethical or moral terms. Have I treated people properly? Did I tell the truth?

I learned one thing in Watergate: I was well-intentioned but rationalized illegal behavior. You cannot live your life other than walking in the truth. Your means are as important as your ends.

Certainly he [Richard M. Nixon] is not of the generation that regards honesty as the best policy.

There are no good and bad peoples; there are only leaderships that behave responsibly or insanely.

Would that the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy, might be laid to heart; that a sense of the true aim of life might elevate the tone of politics and trade till public and private honor become identical.

Honesty, integrity, and accountability, the values, which should be the hallmark of this government, have instead been thrown under the bus by an arrogant majority, casualties in a misguided campaign to shield from accountability those who abuse this House.

The sins of teachers are the teachers of sin.

Plato said that virtue has no master. If a person does not honor this principle and rejoice in it, but is purchasable for money, he creates many masters for himself.

Whatever flaws or personal failings afflict them, it remains the case that the overwhelming majority of priests and politicians are honourable and honest - seeking to live out their beliefs and serve society.

Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.

I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.

When I saw corruption, I was forced to find truth on my own. I couldn't swallow the hypocrisy.

I can't tell you how many times I've had conversations with politicians who've done something morally reprehensible but not indictable, yet still think they should be able to stay in office. The office isn't a 'right.' It's a kind of loan.

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

Of front-line importance among the most contagious and enduring traits of the leaders of nations and of all callings is that of spotless character.

An honest man in politics shines more there than he would elsewhere.

...it's so hard to find men of a so high type of morals that they'll stay bought.

In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.

Power tends to corrupt - so we should, in both the public and the private spheres, be on guard against, and erect sturdy guardrails against, the corruptions of power.

If a ruler of men wants to put an end to vice, he must examine the correspondence between form and name and look to see how what is said differs from what is done.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

In the last few years, the very idea of telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is dredged up only as a final resort when the alternative options of deception, threat and bribery have all been exhausted.

In day-to-day life, you have stimulus to behave unethically, but in the long term, it always pays off to be ethical.

Some people are in positions of power, and when incentives go haywire, we are all human and it's easy to make mistakes. I am not saying everybody is Bernie Madoff.