Ethics and Morality

Virtue has never been as respectable as money .

Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.

Indecency, vulgarity, obscenity - these are strictly confined to man; he invented them. Among the higher animals there is no trace of them. They hide nothing. They are not ashamed.

Always obey your parents - when they are present.

Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places, and does not cure it or even diminish it.

There are 869 different forms of lying, but only one of them has been squarely forbidden. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.

Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.

I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won't.

Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to.

Martyrdom covers a multitude of sins.

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any .

I deal with temptation by yielding to it.

Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.

Prosperity is the best protector of principle.

The most permanent lessons in morals are those which come, not of book teaching, but of experience .

Never do wrong when people are looking.

No church property is taxed and so the infidel and the atheist and the man without religion are taxed to make up the deficit.

The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet.

Do not offer a compliment and ask a favor at the same time. A compliment that is charged for is not valuable.

Each nation knowing it has the only true religion and the only sane system of government, each despising all the others, each an ass and not suspecting it .

There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.

Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better .