If you have to lie, cheat, steal, obstruct and bully to get your point across, it must not be a point capable of surviving on its own merits.
Interpretation
True arguments should stand on their own; unethical tactics indicate weakness in one's position.
This quote emphasizes that if one's argument or point requires dishonest or unethical actions such as lying, cheating, stealing, obstructing, or bullying to be communicated or accepted, then the argument itself is fundamentally weak and lacks merit. It suggests that integrity and truthfulness are essential for a valid point to be recognized and accepted in any discourse.
In practice
During a debate on ethical marketing, this quote can remind participants about the importance of honesty.
I came across few whites as a boy at Qunu. The local magistrate, of course, was white, as was the nearest shopkeeper. Occasionally, white travelers or policemen passed through our area. These whites appeared as grand as gods to me, and I was aware that they were to be treated with a mixture of fear and respect.
Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?
...quality of life lies in knowledge, in culture. Values are what constitute true quality of life, the supreme quality of life, even above food, shelter and clothing.
Uncertain as I was as I pushed forward, I felt right in my pushing, as if the effort itself meant something. That perhaps being amidst the undesecrated beauty of the wilderness meant I too could be undesecrated, regardless of the regrettable things I'd done to others or myself or the regrettable things that had been done to me. Of all the things I'd been skeptical about, I didn't feel skeptical about this: the wilderness had a clarity that included me.
In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.
We shall find that every effort to realize equality necessitates a sacrifice of liberty.
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