Civic Integrity Quotes

Those who are selected for a limited time to manage public affairs are still of the people, and may do much by their example to encourage, consistently with the dignity of their official functions, that plain way of life which among their fellow-citizens aids integrity and promotes thrift and prosperity.

As to the Constitution and the Union, I have taken an oath to support the one, and I cannot do so without preserving the other, unless I commit perjury, which I certainly don't intend to do. We must cherish the Constitution to the last.

When we say, 'One nation under God, with liberty and justice for all', we are talking about all people. We either ought to believe it or quit saying it .

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

Why should I ? I don't need to run down my opponent through filthy language in order to win. The voters don't expect this from their representatives.

Cities are ruined when they were unable to distinguish worthless citizens from virtuous ones.

Under our free republican form of government the character and stability of the government depended upon the character of the citizen, the country could not continue safely incorporating into its body politic the ignorant, criminal, dangerous and hostile elements that are now being emptied upon those shores.

Patriotism, or the peculiar relation of an individual to his country, is like the family instinct. In the child it is a blind devotion; in the man in intelligent love. The patriot perceives the claim made upon his country by the circumstances and time of her growth and power, and how God is to be served by using those opportunities of helping mankind. Therefore his country's honor is dear to him as his own, and he would as soon lie and steal himself as assist or excuse his country in a crime.

If a large city can, after intense intellectual efforts, choose for its mayor a man who merely will not steal from it, we consider it a triumph of the suffrage.