QuoteProject
Our Congresses consist of Christians. In their private life they are true to every obligation of honor; yet in every session they violate them all, and do it without shame. Because honor to party is above honor to themselves.
Mark Twain
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote highlights the hypocrisy of politicians who value party loyalty over personal honor.

Mark Twain's quote critiques the moral failings of politicians who, while claiming to uphold honorable values in their private lives, regularly compromise those values in the interest of party allegiance. He emphasizes that the loyalty to party can overshadow one's personal integrity, leading to a troubling contradiction in behavior, where the obligations towards party often take precedence over ethical principles.

Themes

PoliticsHypocrisyHonorIntegrityLoyalty

In practice

Example use cases

During a political debate, one could use this quote to highlight the failures of elected officials in upholding their promises.

More from Mark Twain

Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article on it
Mark TwainRead
The easy part of being an artist is figuring out the message that everyone else is ready to hear. The hard part is waiting for the proper lull to make the announcement.
Mark TwainRead
You can't reason with your heart; it has its own laws, and thumps about things which the intellect scorns.
Mark TwainRead
To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.
Mark TwainRead
Name the greatest of all inventors. Accident.
Mark TwainRead
In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.
Mark TwainRead

Similar quotes

That fatal drollery called a representative government.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
We have been taught to regard a representative of the people as a sentinel on the watch-tower of liberty.
Daniel WebsterRead
Government isn't there just to administer life support to failing markets. Without the government, many of those markets would not even exist.
Rutger BregmanRead
Even as someone who's labeled a conservative - I'm a Republican I'm black, I'm heading up this organization in the Reagan administration - I can say that conservatives don't exactly break their necks to tell blacks that they're welcome.
Clarence ThomasRead
The ultimate test of the value of a political system is whether it helps that society to establish conditions which improve the standard of living for the majority of its people.
Lee Kuan YewRead
The marginalized did not create identity politics: their identities have been forced on them by dominant groups, and politics is the most effective method of revolt.
Stacey AbramsRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Mark Twain | QuoteProject