Robert Jordan Quotes

It was a morally representative act. Helms withheld the information because it would have cost him his job.

Sometimes you have to do what’s wrong in order to do what’s right.

There is a point, of course, where a man must take the isolated peak and break with all his associates for clear principle; but until that time comes he must work, if he would be of use, with men as they are. As long as the good in them overbalances the evil, let him work with them for the best that can be obtained.

It doesn't make sense to have to do the wrong thing in order to do the right thing.

You must always do what you feel is right.

I do what I think is right.

If in doubt, don't. If still in doubt, do what's right.

In any ethical situation, the thing you want least to do is probably the right action.

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.

You just have to do what you know is right.

Necessity makes an honest man a knave.

The time is always right to do what is right.

doing what is right is easy. The problem is knowing what is right

What good would politics be, if it didn’t give everyone the opportunity to make moral compromises?

There is no wrong time to do the right thing.

Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But Conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.

In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.

If I could, Sister James, I would certainly choose to live in innocence. But innocence can only be wisdom in a world without evil. Situations arise and we are confronted with wrongdoing and the need to act.

People will not follow a leader with moral incongruities for long. Every time you compromise character you compromise leadership. The foundation of firm leadership is character.

Alanna didn't approve of lying, but in a pinch a lie was sometimes better than the truth.

My rule, in which I have always found satisfaction, is, never to turn aside in public affairs through views of private interest; but to go straight forward in doing what appears to me right at the time, leaving the consequences with Providence.

But there are times in this harum-scarum world when figuring out the right thing to do is quite simple, but doing the right thing is simply impossible.

Doing the right thing doesn't always bring success. But compromising ethics almost always leads to failure.

Men must learn now with pity to dispense; For policy sits above conscience.

If you choose the lesser of two evils, you are still choosing evil.