William B. Cockran Quotes

A party should be founded not merely on numbers, but on moral principles, without which it can neither accomplish useful work nor inspire confidence.

In politics, the people I most despise are those who have no values.

Ethics or simple honesty is the building blocks upon which our whole society is based, and business is a part of our society, and it's integral to the practice of being able to conduct business, that you have a set of honest standards.

All Americans want our government to have a moral compass.

Leadership is not manifested by coercion, even against the resented. Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods.

Politics have no relation to morals.

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.

In just about every area of society, there's nothing more important than ethics.

Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.

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

Well, purity - there's no purity in politics.

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.

Party honesty is party expediency.

In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics. Each is indispensable to civilization. Without law, we should be at the mercy of the least scrupulous; without ethics, law could not exist.

Important issues do not always split along party lines.

No party has a monopoly over what is right.

Party service does not require intelligent, independent action, and politics today stands for party fealty more than for governmental ethics

If we leave our values at the door, we give up some of the moral glue that has held our country together

I have learned, by some experience, that virtue and patriotism, vice and selfishness, are found in all parties, and that they differ less in their motives than in the policies they pursue.

Civilization depends on morality.

If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

I am sorry to say I do doubt the honesty of many men that are called good at home, that have given themselves up to serve a party.

To refrain from all injustice renders us also humane.

You can't do a good deal with bad people, and you can't do a bad deal with good people. I often use that as my compass.

Justice is the handmaiden of truth, and when truth dies, justice is buried with it.