David Wessel Quotes

Compromise on ethical conduct is not an option.

While values drive behaviors, principles govern consequences.

Ethics is a code of values which guide our choices and actions and determine the purpose and course of our lives.

My greatest personal mistake is ever to allow a word or moment that “doesn’t count,” i.e., that I do not refer to my own basic principles. Every word, every action, every moment counts. (This is the pattern on which everybody makes mistakes [or] becomes irrational — not relating their one action or one conviction to another.

Consequences are governed by principles, and behavior is governed by values; therefore, value principles!

I don't want to do anything that violates my own personal code of ethics and morals.

Ethics to me is very important.

Guided by nothing but pop culture values, many children no longer learn how to think about morality and virtue, or to think of them at all. They grow up with no shared moral framework, believing that the highest values are diversity, tolerance and non-judgmentalism.

Congruence, integration, responsibility and integrity are the values that I stand for.

I never did, or countenanced, in public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith; having never believed there was one code of morality for a public, and another for a private man.

I am committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct for government officials.

As for Hollywood, there was an offer. But I declined to do it because of certain moral and ethical values.

Openness, respect, integrity - these are principles that need to underpin pretty much every other decision that you make.

A personal code of conduct that you follow is far better than a social code of conduct that you are forced to follow.

I live my life by certain standards.

Act with honor, and Honor will aid you

It is difficult for me to regard anyone who obeys no moral principle in his conduct to be a religious man.

Ideology knows the answer before the question has been asked. Principles are something different: a set of values that have to be adapted to circumstances but not compromised away.

Sometimes we forge our own principles and sometimes we accept others' principles, or holistic packages of principles, such as religion and legal systems. While it isn't necessarily a bad thing to use others' principles - it's difficult to come up with your own, and often much wisdom has gone into those already created - adopting pre-packaged principles without much thought exposes you to the risk of inconsistency with your true values.

There can be no mercy without truth.

Morality is always derivative. It stems from one's worldview.

Right and wrong as moral principles do not change. They are applicable and reliable determinants whether the situations with which we deal are simple or complicated. There is always a right and wrong to every question which requires our solution.

It is never too early to try and plant [good principles] in a child, and never too late to cultivate them in the most neglected person.

It's a morality that keeps humans human.

I have never lived on principles. When I have had to act, I never first asked myself on what principles I was going to act, but I went at it and did what I thought fit. I have often reproached myself for my want of principle.