Elizabeth Bentley Quotes

What, shall one of us, That struck for the foremost man of all this world But for supporting robbers--shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes, And sell the mighty space of our large honors For so much trash as may be grasped thus?

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

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

I don’t believe, and I never did, that a man has to become an informer to practice his profession.

There are honest people in the world, but only because the devil considers their asking prices ridiculous.

No man is really honest; none of us is above the influence of gain.

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.

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly 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.

For I can raise no money by vile means.

Well, purity - there's no purity in politics.

Truth made you a traitor as it often does in a time of scoundrels.

What by a straight path cannot be reached by crooked ways is never won.

Truth is absolute, truth is supreme, truth is never disposable in national political life.

I see you're a man with ideals. I better be going before you've still got them.

No human being or society ... ever did or ever will come to much unless their conduct was governed and guided by the love of some ethical ideal

Let this moment be the beginning of an epoch of austere morality and of immaculate justice.

People should be judged by the principles they espouse and the principles they betray.

I suppose that an honest man shines more in politics than he does elsewhere.

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

Truth is a habit of integrity, not a strategy of politics.

I remember, years ago, if I had had an opportunity to leave the Lakers, I would have left for one reason: because I did not like an owner that was not telling me the truth. And it would have made no difference what they would have offered me; I would have left.

It is much easier to ruin a man of principle than a man of none, for he may be ruined through his scruples. Knavery is supple and can bend; but honesty is firm and upright, and yields not.

How is it possible for those who are men of honor in their persons, thus to become notorious liars in their party

Falsehood is never better than truth, theft better than honesty, treachery better than loyalty, cowardice better than courage.