James Madison Quotes

No matter what is the environment around you, it is always possible to maintain your brand of integrity

Corruption never has been compulsory; when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains.

I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.

I should not deal with things that aren't founded on ethical principles, because that's not who I am as a human being.

He that departs with his own honesty For Vulgar , doth it too dearly buy.

In the end, your integrity is all you've got.

Want of principle is power. Truth and honesty set a limit to our efforts, which impudence and hypocrisy easily overleap.

Without integrity and conscience we lose our freedom.

Integrity is hard work. I do think the Internet makes it harder because of the temptations of performance. You can perform and have integrity, but it's easier just to perform.

Let fortune do her worst, whatever she makes us lose, so long as she never makes us lose our honesty and our independence.

We follow the codes not because they bring gain, but because we loathe the people we would otherwise become.

Integrity, honesty, and honor may not give immediate rewards or gratification, and they can be life-threatening (for example, being a whistle-blower or turning state's evidence). The absence of integrity, honesty, and honor do not always bring punishment or scorn, and can be life-aggrandizing (connivers and cheats often gain power and wealth). Therefore, morality must be its own reward.

It's something that people who read my materials have asked me in the past. If you don't have principles - the last chapter of the book ["Win"] is all about winning with principles. It's all about applying words to good things, good people, good efforts. Without that inherent accuracy, then even the best words will still fail.

There's more than one way to get to the goal that you want to get to, but once you compromise your own principles, then you're lost. You're really lost.

A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.

The point never to lose sight of is to be guided by the correct thing, as you see it. It's the only way to approach such profound matters and retain your integrity.

But rarely have I made choices that made me feel I was really compromising what I believe.

There’s nothing more important than people’s conscience and there’s nothing that needs more protection.

Our probity is not less at the mercy of fortune than our property.

Honor is like the eye, which cannot suffer the least impurity without damage. It is a precious stone, the price of which is lessened by a single flaw.

No man of honor ever quite lives up to his code, any more than a moral man manages to avoid sin.

Success gives the character of honesty to some classes of wickedness.

The prevarication and white lies which a mind that keeps itself ambitiously pure is as uneasy under as a great artist under the false touches that no eye detects but his own, are worn as lightly as mere trimmings when once the actions have become a lie.

Integrity is the core of our character.

There can be no question of holding forth on ethics. I have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules