The end never really justifies the meanness.

The end never really justifies the meanness.

To be ashamed of one's immorality: that is a step on the staircase at whose end one is also ashamed read more

To be ashamed of one's immorality: that is a step on the staircase at whose end one is also ashamed of one's morality.

It is difficult to offend a New Yorker.

It is difficult to offend a New Yorker.

I find the doctors and the sages
Have differ'd in all climes and ages,
And two in read more

I find the doctors and the sages
Have differ'd in all climes and ages,
And two in fifty scarce agree
On what is pure morality.

What I have absolutely no sympathy with is the legislator, the man who seeks, for his own profit, to exploit read more

What I have absolutely no sympathy with is the legislator, the man who seeks, for his own profit, to exploit the weaknesses of those who are unable to help themselves and then to fasten some moral superscription upon it. This I loathe so much that I cannot conceivably explain how much it is.

I'm one of the undeserving poor . . . up ugen middle-class
morality all the time . . . read more

I'm one of the undeserving poor . . . up ugen middle-class
morality all the time . . . . What is middle-class morality?
Just an excuse for never giving me anything.

The Bearings of this observation lays in the application on it.

The Bearings of this observation lays in the application on it.

Rough Johnson, the great moralist.

Rough Johnson, the great moralist.

Principle, particularly moral principal, can never be a weathervane, spinning around this way and that with the shifting winds of read more

Principle, particularly moral principal, can never be a weathervane, spinning around this way and that with the shifting winds of expediency. Moral principle is a compass forever fixed and forever true. And that is as important in business as it is in the classroom.