Of the Useful and the Honourable

No man is free from speaking foolish things; the misfortune is to speak them with earnest application. This does not touch me: mine slip from me with as little care as they deserve. Which is the better way, I am very willing to receive correction, but I will not be commanded.

I have, in my time, seen wonder made of the address of certain men in public negotiations, who yet were, upon examination, found to have achieved nothing, and to have merely deferred the thing, while filling the interval with activity. And I have noted that the great practical masters of statecraft — those who move through betrayal with an easy conscience — are not in truth more effective than honest men; only more willing to sacrifice what is best in themselves for the sake of an outcome that rarely arrives.

No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.

For my own part, I have always found that in matters of consequence, a plain and clear statement of my true opinion has served me better than any roundabout address. I have never been much employed in the affairs of princes, God be thanked; yet I have been pressed into some small service, and I have endeavoured therein not to leave my conscience at the door. A man who will stoop to deception for his master will stoop again for himself, and in the end there is nothing left of him that can be trusted.

The useful and the honourable do not always lie together. I know this. But when they part company, I have made my choice — and I find I sleep better for it. Public life requires compromises I am not prepared to make with my own nature. I am more attached to my character than to any office, and more jealous of my integrity than of my reputation. These may seem like the distinctions of a comfortable man; perhaps they are. But a man who has no bottom cannot serve at all — he only floats where the current takes him.