Quotes about Ethics

I am very little inclined on any occasion to say anything unless I hope to produce some good by it.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.

Important principles may and must be inflexible.

I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.

Resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer

If you want to test a man's character, give him power.

If I do good, I feel good...If I do bad, I feel bad

I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.

Towering genius...thirsts and burns for distinction; and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen.

let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children's liberty.