“Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
To the Young People's Society, Greenpoint Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn (February 16, 1901).
Variant: Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.
William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist
No. 4, What Is It
1790s, Poems from Blake's Notebook (c. 1791-1792), Several Questions Answered
“What in her do I require?
The face of gratified desire.”
Brownish Spider.
Brother, Sister (2006)
“The time is always right to do what’s right.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
Speech delivered in Finney Chapel at Oberlin College (22 October 1964), as reported in "When MLK came to Oberlin" by Cindy Leise, The Chronicle-Telegram (21 January 2008) http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2008/01/21/when-mlk-came-to-oberlin/ <br class="br">1960s <br class="br">Variant: The time is always right to do what’s right.
Paddy Chayefsky (1923–1981) American playwright, screenwriter and novelist
Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison.
The Americanization of Emily (1964)
Context: You've done the morally right thing. God save us all from people who do the morally right thing. It's always the rest of us who get broken in half.
“And as for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.”
Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet
Variant: Let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.
Source: Letters to a Young Poet
“What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
