Elaine Stritch Quotes

Character is the starting point from which we go on. When I say a man has character, I mean that when you go to that man and say, 'What are the facts in this case?' he will tell you the truth, justly, truly, and wisely as he knows, with the minimum of exhibitionism and the maximum of devotion to the common cause.

The truth doesn't hurt unless it ought to.

There is no truth without responsibility following in its wake.

The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and must therefore be treated with great caution.

Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control.

If I hear a lie in my life with my children, with my wife, my work, my audiences, I want to annihilate myself, vaporize myself and wipe myself off the face of the earth.

There are two good rules which ought to be written on every heart - never to believe anything bad about anybody unless you positively know it to be true; never to tell even that unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary, and that God is listening.

Now I come to 75 years of age, I think what's most important in life is your conscience. If you told a lie and made other people suffer, I think that's very difficult when you reach this age.

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right than to be responsible and wrong.

If you did something, and it wasn't right, you definitely found out about it. And they were pretty smart people, both my parents, so you didn't get too much by them.

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'll answer anything... I'm brutally honest, actually, which gets me in trouble.

Never lie to your mother. That's like the biggest lesson that I learned, learned throughout my life, you know?

Above all, I would teach him to tell the truth Truth-telling, I have found, is the key to responsible citizenship. The thousands of criminals I have seen in 40 years of law enforcement have had one thing in common: Every single one was a liar.

When you have children, there is no room for lies, no room for anything but the truth. Anything other than that is a bad example, I believe.

See it all. See it fairly. Be truthful, be sensible and be careful with language. When nothing depends on man, everything depends on him.

Well, the truth is always what should be told. And the truth and the knowledge of the truth is what everybody should represent, regardless of the consequences of doing it.

Don't trust somebody that don't have a troubled period.

I'm not saying I'm the perfect role model. But I'm honest. Period.

I have been given the authority over you, and I am not the best of you. If I do well, help me; and if I do wrong, set me right. Sincere regard for truth.

No blame should attach to telling the truth. But it does, it does.

The only people that ever stand up and tell the truth are who? Intelligence officers. Because our culture is, never break faith with the truth. We'll tell you, you don't have to drag it out of us.

When the people who are responsible for our country ask you a direct question, I expect them to accept a direct answer, not to be blackballed because you are telling the truth.

It is my conviction that secrets are more costly in the long run than honesty.

You should not do an autobiography if you want to tell the truth. There are a lot of things I know about people. If I can't say something good about a person, I don't want to say anything. And since I don't want to say anything bad, I won't write a book.