Ethical Communication Quotes

To be persuasive we must be believable. To be believable, we must be truthful.

A lot of the reason why the debate is acrimonious is because of the 24/7 news cycles, blogs, and people being able to just throw something out there in order to get attention. And I'm not going be out there doing the same thing, trying to trash my successor or call attention to myself. I hope that's a positive contribution to the dialogue.

Anybody who is in a position to serve this country ought to understand the consequences of words.

While extremely sensitive as to the slightest approach to slander, you must also guard against an extreme into which some people fall, who, in their desire to speak evil of no one, actually uphold and speak well of vice.

On the one hand, we may tell the truth, regardless of consequences, and on the other hand we may mellow it and sophisticate it to make it humane and tolerable.

Man has long found solace in good talk to offset bad conduct.

When I talk to anyone or read the writings of anyone who has any axe to grind, I feel that intellectual honesty and balanced judgement have simply disappeared from the face of the earth. Everyone's thought is forensic, everyone is simply putting a "case" with deliberate suppression of his opponent's point of view, and, what is more, with complete insensitiveness to any sufferings except those of himself and his friends.

Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not distort, delay, or sequester information

I shouldn't talk about individuals in an open forum, at least without thinking about it better.

Parents shouldn't lie to their children-not even when they think it's for their own good. Even a little lie is dangerous.

Tell the truth and not the facts.

Before speaking, consult your inner-truth barometer, and resist the temptation to tell people only what they want to hear.

Writing can teach us the dignity of speaking the truth.

I have people that are affected by what I do, what I say, and that would be the one place where it gets complicated. But being honest and truthful - I just believe that's the best way to be.

Story is morally neutral. It can express profound truth or propaganda. The two greatest political storytellers of the 20th Century were Winston Churchill and Adolph Hitler. Because storytelling is a form of persuasive jujitsu, and because world is full of black belt storytellers, the corporate leader has to train both his offensive and defensive moves

Though it be honest, it is never good to bring bad news.

The aversion to lying is often a hidden ambition to render our words credible and weighty, and to attach a religious aspect to our conversation.

I wished to tell the truth, for truth always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it.

Never lie in writing.

The virtuous will be sure to speak uprightly; but those whose speech is upright may not be virtuous.

In employing fiction to make truth clear and goodness attractive, we are only following the example which every Christian ought to propose to himself.

And if candor strikes to forcefully, step back, draw careful breath, and consider the angle your words must take before you open your mouth, let them leak out. Because once you tilt the truth, it becomes a lie.

Honesty of thought and speech and written word is a jewel, and they who curb prejudice and seek honorably to know and speak the truth are the only builders of a better life.

I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. It's the point where free speech begins to collide with the right to privacy. I don't think there are any other conditions to free speech. I've got a right to say and believe anything I please, but I haven't got a right to press it on anybody else. .... Nobody's got a right to be a nuisance to his neighbors.