Ethics and Morality

Independence-is loyalty to one's best self and principles, and this is often disloyalty to the general idols and fetishes.

It has always been a peculiarity of the human race that it keeps two sets of morals in stock-the private and the real, and the public and the artificial.

To do right is wonderful. To teach others to do right is even more wonderful--and much easier.

When a humorist ventures upon the grave concerns of life he must do his job better than another man or he works harm to his cause.

All my life I have been honest-comparatively honest. I could never use money I had not made honestly-I could only lend it.

A reputable lawyer will advise you to keep out of the law, make the best of a foolish bargain, and not get caught again.

You take the lies out of him, and he'll shrink to the size of your hat; you take the malice out of him, and he'll disappear .

When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet in his private heart no man much respects himself.

That's the difference between governments and individuals. Governments don't care, individuals do.

Write without pay until somebody offers to pay.

No one is willing to acknowledge a fault in himself when a more agreeable motive can be found for the estrangement of his acquaintances.

I do not like an injurious lie, except when it injures somebody else.

The primary rule of business success is loyalty to your employer. That's all right as a theory. What is the matter with loyalty to yourself?

The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice -- and always has been.

I never can think of Judas Iscariot without losing my temper. To my mind Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature, Congressman.

What is the chief end of man?-to get rich. In what way?-dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must.

Difference between savage and civilized man: one is painted, the other gilded.

Are you so unobservant as not to have found out that sanity and happiness are an impossible combination ?

Of the 417 commandments, only a single one of the 417 has found ministerial obedience; multiply and replenish the earth. To it sinner & saint, scholar & ignoramus, Christian & savage are alike loyal.

Let us be grateful to Adam: he cut us out of the blessing of idleness and won for us the curse of labor.

Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.

Never tell a lie-except for practice.

George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.

I suppose, just as an honest man in politics shines more than he would elsewhere.