David McCullough Quotes

We should be led by principles and morals and not by men.

I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

In order to be respected, authority has got to be respectable.

A good leader must be fair.

Justice is truth in action.

Ethics are a key issue, and they're a key issue on the Democratic side, and all people have to be held to high standards.

It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance.

Truth is the glue that holds government together.

Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.

Apart from values and ethics which I have tried to live by, the legacy I would like to leave behind is a very simple one - that I have always stood up for what I consider to be the right thing, and I have tried to be as fair and equitable as I could be.

You can't have justice unless you have truth.

I like honesty and fair play.

Good laws make it easier to do right and harder to do wrong.

Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him.

All my life I have fought corruption.

Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou.

The foundation for moral leadership is the truth.

We need a President who is more interested in being right and just than being President.

Chung Yu asked the Master about government, and was answered:] Require of others only what you have first taught them.

I know some say, let us have good laws, and no matter for the men that execute them: but let them consider, that though good laws do well, good men do better: for good laws may want good men, and be abolished or evaded by ill mend but good men will never want good laws, nor suffer ill ones.

I would rather have a Scot come from Scotland to govern the people of this kingdom well and justly than that you should govern them ill in the sight of all the world

We must reduce corruption to its fair proportions.

Pubic business must be done. It will be done one way or another. If wise men refuse it, others will not. If honest men refuse it, others will not.

Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.

We’re not here to bring politics to our morality, but to bring morality to our politics.