Frank Abagnale Quotes

A man is not honest simply because he never had a chance to steal

I have never stolen. I am not a thief.

Honesty: The ability to resist small temptations.

The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil.

If I steal money from any person, there may be no harm done from the mere transfer of possession; he may not feel the loss, or it may prevent him from using the money badly. But I cannot help doing this great wrong towards Man, that I make myself dishonest.

Never in my life did I steal a penny that didn't belong to me.

Plato said that virtue has no master. If a person does not honor this principle and rejoice in it, but is purchasable for money, he creates many masters for himself.

You can't have integrity for breakfast, but try and keep it because it is perhaps the single most important word that defines not just writers but all human beings.

Moral character has now some influence in our elections, but not that place which it deserves. The law of public opinion excludes confirmed sots, and persons judicially convicted of high crimes and misdemeanors against the State; but it ought to render the election of all profane swearers, notorious Sabbath breakers, seducers, slanderers, prodigals and riotous persons, as well as the advocates of dueling, impracticable.

Your character must be above suspicion and you must be truthful and self-controlled.

Who, under pressing temptations to lie, adheres to truth, nor to the profane betrays aught of a sacred trust, is near the summit of wisdom and virtue.

A righteous man hates lying, But a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame.

An honest man is strange when he is among dishonest men, but it is a good kind of strangeness.

It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual.

I never did anything dishonest.

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

I just want you to know you aren't going to church with a crook.

I'm actually a pretty decent human being, and when I'm home I'm straight as an arrow.

The integrity of men is to be measured by their conduct, not by their professions.

I did steal socks, but I got caught... don't shoplift, anyone - don't do it! You're just gonna get caught.

If I wanted to do wrong, I could not.

You oughtn't to yield to temptation. Well, somebody must, or the thing becomes absurd.

Modesty is the color of virtue.

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

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.