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“The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.”
Thoreau places personal moral judgment ahead of automatic obedience, arguing that conscience creates an individual responsibility to decide whether one’s own action is right.
Source note: Civil Disobedience, first printed in 1849 as “Resistance to Civil Government”; represented Wikisource text. The claim is part of Thoreau’s political argument about conscience, slavery, war and government.
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“He that walketh uprightly walketh surely.”
Consistent upright conduct reduces the need to maintain conflicting stories or hidden motives.
Source note: Proverbs 10:9 in the King James Version; the opening clause is quoted here.
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“If we know the truth and do not live it, our life is—a lie.”
Knowing what is right is not enough in Jordan’s framework; conduct that contradicts acknowledged truth creates a gap between belief and lived character.
Source note: The Power of Truth, opening chapter, Project Gutenberg #56020; the dash is retained from the represented public-domain text.
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“If it is not right, do not do it: if it is not true, do not say it.”
The test is deliberately simple: action and speech should each pass an ethical standard before they are expressed.
Source note: Meditations, Book XII, in George Long’s translation.
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“Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.”
The proverb contrasts deception with dependable truthfulness and treats honesty as a moral practice.
Source note: Proverbs 12:22 in the King James Version.
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“It does not pay an individual to do anything except what his conscience will approve of every day, and every hour and minute in the day.”
Washington makes conscience a recurring test of conduct, asking whether ordinary choices can withstand one’s own moral approval rather than merely outside scrutiny.
Source note: Character Building, “What Will Pay?”, Project Gutenberg #60484. Washington reports a discussion of honesty in business and uses conscience as a practical test of conduct; the sentence belongs to that address’s argument that dishonest dealing does not pay.