Political Ethics Quotes

If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

Politics have no relation to morals.

The worst government is the most moral.

Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.

Principles aren't of much account anyway, except at election time. After that you hang them up to let them season.

History has tried hard to teach us that we can't have good government under politicians.

Therefore, the only way Donald Trump can protect himself is to set up a blind trust or to divest in these holdings. It's the only way.

You can't adopt politics as a profession and remain honest.

Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.

He is not a … politician who would sacrifice his soul for office; he is not a member of Congress who would promise anything to win a second term. He represents all that is best in American manhood involving integrity of character, a sane mind, and the loftiest of motives.

I do not believe in a political strategy that does not have a moral foundation.

Self-preservation shouldn't be the first instinct in politics. It should be doing the right thing for the country.

An honest public servant can't become rich in politics. He can only attain greatness and satisfaction by service.

When public men indulge themselves in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and insinuation, to libel, scandal, and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged, and democracy is baffled. It has no apparatus to deal with the boor, the liar, the lout, and the anti-democrat in general.

The basis of effective government is public confidence, and that confidence is endangered when ethical standards falter or appear to falter.

The nation who has never admitted a chapter of morality into her political code,... will boldly avow that whatever power she can make hers is hers of right

Some States just have a good political culture. It’s not all greed driven.

No man can do both effective and decent work in public life unless he is a practical politician on the one hand, and a sturdy believer in Sunday-school politics on the other. He must always strive manfully for the best, and yet, like Abraham Lincoln, must often resign himself to accept the best possible.

A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker.

No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue.

It is the task of theologians to establish the limits of justice and injustice regarding the intrinsic goodness or wickedness of an act; it is the task of the observer of public life to establish the relationships of political justice and injustice, that is, of what is useful or harmful to society.

If a President of the United States ever lied to the American people, he should resign.

Hillary Clinton ought to be ashamed of herself.

The great political questions are in their final analysis great moral questions.

Our modern politicians … claim that they are too practical to be pure and too patriotic to be moral.