Janet Malcolm Quotes

If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

What is the most precious thing in the world? I see now that it is the knowledge that you have no part in injustice. Injustice is stronger than you, it always was and always will be, but let it not be done through you.

The eleventh commandment, "Thou shalt not be found out" is despicable, but nevertheless, it is the one thing you can never get away from.

I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

One of the more challenging things in life is not being the guy who does the cheating, but not saying anything about it and going along with it.

Looking back, I am ashamed that I have not always upheld the values that I profess and believe in.

What, pray, does it profit a man to teach others, and to be prating always about virtue, in high-sounding words, if he fails to give heed to his own instructions?

I'm accountable to my God, and I haven't done anything I'm embarrassed of.

At times, it appears easy to sermonise on morality and ethics. But morality and ethics appear good only when applied to others, never on oneself.

I hold myself to a high standard.

If you're going to cheat and take people's history and you're not writing the Bible, you ain't really so great. But if you try to do it in a way that doesn't hurt too many people, then you probably can get out of bed in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror.

If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.

There are things you can't walk away from. Not if you want to live with yourself afterward.

If you have to keep a secret it's because you shouldn't be doing it in the first place

Silence,they say,is the voice of complicity. But silence is impossible. Silence screams. Silence is the message,just as doing nothing is an act. Let who you are ring out and resonate in every word and deed. Yes,become who you are. There's no sidestepping your own being or your own responsibility. What you do is who you are. You are your own comeuppance. You become your own message. You are the message. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse.

The true gentleman does not preach what he practices till he has practiced what he preaches.

I don't forget what I used to do and so I can't justifiably say to my kid, "Don't you do that," when I used to do it myself.

I'm pretty moral about what I do. If I didn't think I was worthy of doing something, I wouldn't do it. I ain't gonna waste a bunch of people's time.

To err is human. To cover it up is weasel.

If any man has done wrong, the harm is his own. But perhaps he has not done wrong.

I prefer to do right and get no thanks than to do wrong and receive no punishment.

I have ever held it as a maxim never to do that through another which it was impossible for me to execute myself

A gentleman is ashamed to let his words outrun his deeds.