Ring Lardner Quotes

I don't think I can live a life of compromise. If I did, I wouldn't be able to sleep properly.

You never want to do anything that you don't want your mother to see, because it will haunt you and eventually come back to bite you!

I haven't done anything that I'm ashamed of.

I just felt sick. I was actually executing people. I knew it was wrong, and I should have voted against it. But I didn’t.

Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or keep one; the man who requires you to do so is dearly purchased at a sacrifice.

It's hard to regret making the choice that you think is right.

My father always told me to be myself and say what you think is the right thing; sometimes you pay the consequences, but it means tomorrow will be a happy day for you.

Don't sell out your virtue and your value for something you think you want. Judas got the money, but he threw it all away and hung himself because he was so unhappy with himself.

I confess I seldom commune with my conscience when I write.

There is a guilty conscience behind every brazen word and act and behind every manifestation of self-righteousness.

On that road of the informer, it is always night. I cannot ever inform against anyone without feeling something die within me. I inform without pleasure, because it is necessary.

Is it really so difficult to tell a good action from a bad one? I think one usually knows right away or a moment afterward, in a horrid flash of regret.

You must always do what you feel is right.

I do what I think is right.

I've already got my rent paid, and it's too late in my life for me to go around talking up stuff that I don't like or believe in.

Well, I'm still looking for Maurice Ashley. My essential qualities. I think that more than anything, I try to do the right thing, I think about doing the right thing.

One of my proudest moments is I didn't sell my soul for the sake of popularity.

While I have made errors that I deeply regret, I have never, ever done so with the intent of subverting the law or of benefiting myself.

The most ethical way to deal with an unethical situation would be to simply say: 'We did something wrong.' But nobody in a family like mine would ever respond like this.

You can't betray yourself too often, or you become somebody else.

I am not going to take a role because there's money. It might extend my checkbook, but not my integrity.

I did what my conscience told me to do, and you can't fail if you do that.

Like many people, I have a fascination with lies and the people who tell them. I wouldn't say I've never told a lie, but I don't think I've ever told one without both assuming I would be found out and feeling absolutely rotten about it.

I have always had a lot more trouble with my truths than with my deceits.

For me, integrity is the consistency of words and actions. Part of the way that you do that is to ask people questions on some of the most difficult issues that you confront. 'Take me through where you felt you had to compromise your values.'