Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.

Marshall made his decision, now let him enforce it.

You don't sit around looking for reasons to do the right thing; it's the bad decisions that require creative reasoning.

Each of us must decide whether it is more important to be proved right or to provoke righteousness.

A dogmatic belief in objective value is necessary to the very idea of a rule which is not tyranny or an obedience which is not slavery.

Compromise is the best and cheapest lawyer.

In a living society every day is a day of judgment; and its recognition as such is not the end of all things but the beginning ofa real civilization.

Always do what's right; this will gratify some and astonish the rest

But the nature of the universe is such that the ends never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? Expediency asks the question - is it political? But conscience asks the question - is it right? There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, popular, or political; but because it is right.

Sometimes doing the right thing wounds others — and also wounds the wounder.