W. Somerset Maugham Quotes

It's a big challenge for me to keep my integrity and some of my privacy intact.

If a man's public record be a clear one, if he has kept his pledges before the world, I do not inquire what his private life may have been.

No public man can be just a little crooked.

I value my reputation. I work hard to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

I never hurt anybody in this business, ever.

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.

No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.

We ought never to do wrong when anyone is looking.

In public life as in private life, a man of the very highest repute will occasionally go wrong..

The public character of every public servant is legitimate subject of discussion, and his fitness or unfitness for office may be fairly canvassed by any person.

I could never be a career politician, because I believe in telling the truth.

Both politicians and journalists face situations which strain their honesty and humanity. My opinion is that politicians on the average stand up somewhat better than journalists.

I don't think anyone can say I have said one thing in public and done another in private.

If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

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.'

The measure of your quality as a public person, as a citizen, is the gap between what you do and what you say.

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.

Those who fight corruption should be clean themselves.

I hate to spoil my own prospects, but I really don't respect the kiss-and-tell approach to public life at all, not at all.

If we promise as public officials, we must deliver.

Most of us [members of Congress] are honest at all times, and all of us are honest most of the time.

There are a lot of smart people in politics and government, but character matters ... it is terribly important that the two be melded.

I’d love to say that politicians who lie should be indicted, but lying except under oath is not a crime—it’s a moral crime however.

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

In Washington, and wherever two or more politicians may gather, he who does not get caught has ‘character’ and he who gets caught has none..