Seanan McGuire Quotes

If we are but sure the end is right, we are too apt to gallop over all bounds to compass it; not considering the lawful ends may be very unlawfully attained.

Is it possible to succeed without any act of betrayal?

Prefer a loss to a dishonest gain; the one brings pain at the moment, the other for all time.

Never bend the rules. You bend the rules a little bit and then it's a slippery slope.

Of two evils, choose neither.

I imagine there are things I wouldn't do, but I haven't been offered those recently either.

We talk about honesty, but the reality is we have lots of human values, and they are not all compatible. We don't always tell the truth about everything, no matter what the consequences.

The ends do not always justify the means

Villains have to be passionate enough to say to themselves, 'I will do anything.' It's a certain type of personality that in life, for me, is not the way I live. Because you can't live in a society that way.

People seem to think of me as a goody-goody who never curses, but I can be very nasty if I'm pushed. Cross me too many times, and I'll never talk to you again.

To be a leader, regardless of what party you're in, is to tell your followers what lines not to cross.

I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that is immoral, even if it is technically legal.

Right is what you should do, wrong is what you really want to do.

To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals.

The Human moral keyboard is limited ... there's nothing you can play on it that hasn't been played before. And, my dear Friends, I am sorry to say this, but it has its lower notes.

You can do something that walks a line, and invariably, whatever that line is, it will be crossed by people who don't know any better and want to ape the success.

Those...who insist that there are some moral limits that they will not violate, are forever surprising themselves.

Doing the right thing doesn't always bring success. But compromising ethics almost always leads to failure.

Integrity is what you do when no one is watching; its doing the right thing all the time, even when it may work to your disadvantage.

The low level which commercial morality has reached in America is deplorable. We have humble God fearing Christian men among us who will stoop to do things for a million dollars that they ought not to be willing to do for less than 2 millions.

What passes in the world for talent or dexterity or enterprise is often only a want of moral principle. We may succeed where others fail, not from a greater share of invention, but from not being nice in the choice of expedients.

I've always been the kind of person that doesn't like to trespass, but sometimes you just find yourself over the line.

Confessions may be good for the soul but they are bad for the reputation.

You can be the smartest person in the world - which Bill Clinton is, and if he's not, his wife is - and care more than anybody else in the world - which he does, I don't doubt that for a minute. And you can care so much that you're willing to be dishonest - you can tell people one thing but do another because you really know it's for their own good. And you'll still screw it all up. Because the whole premise of what you're doing is wrong!

Whatever the outcome may be, the important thing is to step forward on the path that you believe is right.