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About this quote

What does it mean?
Most people can be bought if the price is high enough, showing a lack of virtue.
In plain terms
Very few people can resist selling out for money.
What can you take from it?
Virtue is rare when large incentives are involved.

Where it applies

  • business negotiations
  • political office
  • ethical choices

Putting it to work

  • hiring decisions
  • ethical audits
  • personal standards

Questions to consider

  • Is integrity a matter of price?
  • How do you stay principled?

Another view

It generalizes too much about human behavior.

More from George Washington

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  2. Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

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  3. Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, an…

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