Thomas Sowell Quotes

He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the flaw when he may have forgotten its cause.

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.

With this honor devolves upon you also a corresponding responsibility. As the country herein trusts you, so under God it will sustain you.

He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave.

I never hurt anybody in this business, ever.

There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It's exactly the same thing, or even worse.

To the extent that I considered the personal burden of harming the people who had trusted me, plus the Agency, or the United States, I wasn't processing that.

What is done cannot be effaced. We have to act upon a moral field prepared for us ...

It is natural that I should bear entire responsibility for the war in general, and, needless to say, I am prepared to do so. Consequently, now that the war has been lost, it is presumably necessary that I be judged so that the circumstances of the time can be clarified and the future peace of the world be assured. Therefore, with respect to my trial, it is my intention to speak frankly, according to my recollection, even though when the vanquished stands before the victor, who has over him the power of life and death, he may be apt to toady and flatter. I mean to pay considerable attention to this in my actions, and say to the end that what is true is true and what is false is false. To shade one's words in flattery to the point of untruthfulness would falsify the trial and do incalculable harm to the nation, and great care must be taken to avoid this

Some general officers should pay a stricter regard to truth than to call the depopulating other countries the service of their own.

If you break little promises, you'll break big ones.

Wouldst thou shut up the avenues of ill, Pay every debt as if God wrote the bill.

Every fault of the mind becomes more conspicuous and more guilty in proportion to the rank of the offender

War doesn't negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace.

I'm pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.

The untruthful soldier trifles with the lives of his countrymen and the honor and safety of his country.

Be sure to live up to your reputation for honesty and goodness, because many souls who believe you to be honest and good have placed themselves in your hands.

It is time to acknowledge the extraordinary sacrifice of all of our veterans. While many Massachusetts soldiers served our nation in a period technically dubbed 'peacetime,' they restored American pride in the wake of Vietnam and helped bring a successful end to the Cold War. The service of these men and women was not without cost. There are countless stories of soldiers who served with great distinction only to be denied veteran status after returning home. Every man and woman who volunteered to serve this country should be treated with the same degree of respect, gratitude and dignity.

I did only what my duty demanded. I could have taken no other course without dishonor.

It's not intentions that matter. It's actions. We are what we do and say, not what we intend to.

I do not feel betrayed. […] He [Oliver North] has a fine record. He is a national hero.

Eventually we all have to accept full and total responsibility for our actions, everything we have done, and have not done.

What could I do but go with them Civil War soldiers, or work for them and my country? The patriot blood of my father was warm in my veins.

Now when Túrin learnt from Finduilas of what had passed, he was wrathful, and he said to Gwindor: 'In love I hold you for your rescue and sake-keeping. But now you have done ill to me, friend, to betray my right name, and call my doom upon me, from which I would lie hid.' But Gwindor answered: 'The doom lies in yourself, not in your name.

In executing the duties of my present important station, I can promise nothing but purity of intentions, and, in carrying these into effect, fidelity and diligence.