Ethics in Business & Society: Selected Quotations

Historically Famous Americans:

"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"  (Patrick Henry).

"Associate with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company." (President George Washington).

"The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained." (President George Washington, 1789 Inaugural Address).

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports . . . . In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens . . . . [R]eason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." (President George Washington, September 17, 1796).

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." (President John Adams, 1798).

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that god is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever." (President Thomas Jefferson).

"Freedom is the natural condition of the human race, in which the Almighty intended men to live. Those who fight the purpose of the Almighty will not succeed. They always have been, they always will be beaten." (President Abraham Lincoln, 1861).

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in." (President Lincoln's second inaugural address, March 4, 1865).

"Honor is better than honors." (President Abraham Lincoln).

"To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." (President Theodore Roosevelt).

"When the nazis came to power, I looked to the universities that prided themselves upon their intellectual freedom, and they failed me. I looked to the German press, which prided itself on the freedom of the press, and it failed me. Until at last the churches stood alone, and that for which I once had little regard earned my respect." (Albert Einstein, after World War II).

Leadership:

"A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd." (Max Lucado).

"You cannot choose your battlefield, God does that for you; But you can plant a standard Where a standard never flew." (Nathalia Crane, "The Colors").

"A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold" (Proverbs 22:1).

"Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy." (General H.Norman Schwarzkopf, 1991).

Friendship:

"I knew wherever I was that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place you would come--if alive." (W.T. Sherman, in a letter to U.S. Grant).

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother." (Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3).

Business:

"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself. "Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" (Dickens, C. 1843. A Christmas Carol).

"It has become dramatically clear that the foundation of corporate integrity is personal integrity." (DiPiazza, Sam, CEO of PriceswaterhouseCoopers. May 13, 2003. It’s All Down to Personal Values. http:www.pwcglobal.com).

National Character:

"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." (Dwight D. Eisenhower).

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." (The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776).

"It is high time that the ideal of success should be replaced by the ideal of service." (Albert Einstein).

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this new nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth"  (The Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln, November 18, 1863).

"Our patriotic fervor was the result of the old and widespread belief in the idea of American exceptionalism, the idea that America was a new thing in history, different from other countries. Other nations had evolved one way or another, evolved from tribes from a gathering of clans, from inevitabilities of language and tradition and geography. But America was born, and born of ideas: that all men are created equal, that they have been given by God certain rights that can be taken from them by no man, and that those rights combine to create a thing called freedom." (Peggy Noonan, December 9, 1998).

"My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing . . . Long may our land be bright, With freedom's holy light; Protect us by Thy might, Great God, our King." (America, Samuel F. Smith).

"O beautiful for spacious skies, . . . O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life!  America!  America!  May God thy gold refine, Til all success be nobleness And every gain divine!" (America the Beautiful, Katherine Lee Bates).

"Seven deadly sins:  politics without principle; wealth without work; pleasure without conscience; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice" (E. Stanley Jones).

"If we want to produce people who share the values of a democratic culture, they must be taught those values and not be left to acquire them by chance." (Cal Thomas).

Personal Integrity:

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men." (Abraham Lincoln).

"You are beaten...It is useless to resist...Come with me...It is the only way" [D. Vader].  ..."Never" [L. Skywalker].  (dialogue from The Empire Strikes Back, 1980).

"Aggies do not lie, cheat or steal, nor do they tolerate those who do." (Aggie Code of Honor, TAMU).

"For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?" (Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 16:26).

"On a personal level, everyone must answer the following question: What is my highest aspiration? The answer might be wealth, fame, knowledge, popularity, or integrity. But if integrity is secondary to any of the alternatives, it will be sacrificed in situations in which a choice must be made. Such situations will inevitably occur in every person's life." (Murphy Smith).

"No one in the world can change Truth.  What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the hecatombs [e.g. the sacrifice of many victims] of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?" (Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, d.Auschwitz 1941).

Inspiration and Faith:

"Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah the prophet, Isaiah 40:31).

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." (2 Chronicles 16:9a).

"I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten, ...." (Joel 2:25).

"You rule the oceans when their waves arise in fearful storms; you speak, and they lie still." (Psalm 89:9).

"He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away." (Job 5:12-13).