Decency Quotes

I don't know what a scoundrel is like, but I know what a respectable man is like, and it's enough to make one's flesh creep.

Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain.

The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.

Modesty died when clothes were born.

A gentleman is any man who wouldn't hit a woman with his hat on.

It's going to destroy it all. I use what I call my bathroom metaphor. If two people live in an apartment, and there are two bathrooms, then both have what I call freedom of the bathroom, go to the bathroom any time you want, and stay as long as you want to for whatever you need. And this to my way is ideal. And everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom. It should be right there in the Constitution. But if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much every person believes in freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up times for each person, you have to bang at the door … and so on. And in the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.

Getting a chance to see good, decent, patriotic people who just want to have self-determination is something for which I will be grateful for the rest of my life.

The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency.

The most urgent task I have is to help those British citizens who came from the Caribbean, the so-called Windrush generation, and make sure they are all treated with the decency and the fairness they deserve.

I would never do 'Playboy.'

Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.

But Bill Clinton had the good taste to lie about his sexual peccadillos. He had the honor and the decency to want to cover it up.

If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.

If a man suffers ill, let it be without shame; for this is the only profit when we are dead. You will never say a good word about deeds that are evil and disgraceful.

I take my fundamental cue from John Coltrane that says there must be a priority of integrity, honesty, decency, and mastery of craft.

Realizing that common sense and common decency alike dictate the futility of appeasement, we shall never try to placate an aggressor by the false and wicked bargain of trading honor for security.

There is a fine line between sensuousness and vulgarity. I will not cross that line.

I'm a proper man.

Respectable means rich, and decent means poor. I should die if I heard my family called decent.

… evolving standards of decency … mark the progress of a maturing society

[Benjamin Franklin's life was:] ... one continued insult to good manners and decency.

Alexander Hamilton is a man devoid of every moral principle.

The most important thing for me, when somebody asks me what I class as being a success, is being a decent human being.

It's impossible to speak what it is not noble to do.

I consider myself a reasonable man. As such, I tend to expect others to behave with a modicum of reason and common sense. Especially those with power.