Malcolm X Quotes

The devil is compromise.

Is it possible to succeed without any act of betrayal?

He does not believe that does not live according to his belief.

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

I'm a person that's grounded in faith and believe that my core values, motivation, inspiration, draw from a conception of the world in that way.

You can compromise between good, better, and best, and you can compromise between bad and worse and terrible. But you can't compromise between good and evil. And now people look at the other side as a completely different kind of animal and say, 'They are taking the country down the road to purgatory.' It's complete intolerance.

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

Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing.

You can’t set aside … values in the name of political expediency.

Very rarely do people make big compromises with their integrity. Almost every compromise is a small one that is easily justified. The downhill slide is usually a result of many little compromises.

Mrs LINDE: When you've sold yourself once for the sake of others, you don't do it second time.

See? This is why I'm not religious. I couldn't possibly keep my mouth shut long enough to get along with everyone else.

Truth is, I've always been selling out. The difference is that in the past, I looked like I had integrity because there were no buyers.

Mundus vult decipi'—the world wants to be deceived. To live without deception presupposes standards beyond the reach of most people whose existence is largely shaped by compromise, evasion and mutual accommodation. Could they face their weakness, their vanity and selfishness, without a mask?

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

As long as we accept the principle that religious faith must be respected simply because it is religious faith, it is hard to withhold respect from the faith of Osama bin Laden and the suicide bombers

One compromise here, another there and soon enough the so-called Christian and the man in the world look the same.

The test of every religious, political, or educational system, is the man which it forms. If a system injures the intelligence it is bad. If it injures the character it is vicious. If it injures the conscience it is criminal.

How long had he been doing what was necessary instead of what was right? In a fair world they would be one and the same.

Let him who elevates himself above humanity . . . say, if he pleases, "I will never compromise"; but let no one who is not above the frailties of our common nature disdain compromise.

I respect those who follow religious routes only if they seem to me to be morally proper and in accord with the modern world.

There is a point, of course, where a man must take the isolated peak and break with all his associates for clear principle; but until that time comes he must work, if he would be of use, with men as they are. As long as the good in them overbalances the evil, let him work with them for the best that can be obtained.

I am a Muslim, because it's a religion that teaches you an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It teaches you to respect everybody, and treat everybody right. But it also teaches you if someone steps on your toe, chop off their foot. And I carry my religious axe with me all the time.

Maybe a man has to sell his soul to get the power to do good.

If you asked me one day, I might say, "Well, sometimes I feel a little bit religious." If you asked me another day, I'd just say flat out, "No."