Margaret Chase Smith Quotes

The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.

If it is decreed that I should go down because of this speech, then let me go down linked to the truth—let me die in the advocacy of what is just and right.

Without courage there cannot be truth, and without truth there can be no other virtue.

True freedom is where an individual's thoughts and actions are in alignment with that which is true, correct, and of honor - no matter the personal price.

We need men with moral courage to speak and write their real thoughts, and to stand by their convictions, even to the very death.

The greatest want of the world is the want of men - men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.

The courage of New England was the courage of conscience.

We do not despise all those who have vices, but we do despise those that have no virtue.

Being a Deol for me is to be honest; walking with my head held high and never having to bow in front of injustice.

And what, incidentally, do you think integrity is? The ability not to pick a watch out of your neighbor's pocket? No, it's not as easy as that. If that were all, I'd say ninety-five percent of humanity were honest, upright men. Only, as you can see, they aren't. Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea.

Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

A man should be upright, not be kept upright.

Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.

Character is that quality of mind which makes truth-telling instinctive rather than strange.

Virtue must be valuable, if men and women of all degrees pretend to have it.

Moral courage is higher and a rarer virtue than physical courage.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

The way to put oneself in a position to take the harder, more honorable political path is to argue for one's virtues in a vigorous way.

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

It is better to be defeated standing for a high principle than to run by committing subterfuge.

The just man walks in his integrity

They err … who think that virtue consists of words .. good actions are the glory of virtue.

The only way to survive among the evil and corrupt is to be even more wicked and more corrupt than they are!

He was as great as a man can be without morality