Parting With People Who Go the Wrong Way

There is a sentence from Abraham Lincoln which says: “Stand with anybody that stands right and part with him when he goes wrong.” This suggests being with the right people for the right purposes. We all like to be popular. We all like to be approved. Most of us like to live with as little friction as possible, as little difference from the crowd as we can, within the limits of our own convictions. But many have gone the wrong way by following people who were going the wrong way. Sometimes loyalty is given as the reason⎯but is one really loyal when he is disloyal to his better self, or disloyal to the law? Is one really loyal when he disregards what is good? Following the wrong people to the wrong places may not be an act of loyalty at all. Indeed we may be much more loyal when we refuse to follow people to the wrong places, because if we don’t follow them, they may think more earnestly about their own errors and turn back from what they shouldn’t do or where they shouldn’t go, if we set before them an example and have the courage to take independent action. We have to do our own thinking, make decisions, live by principles, with courage to assert ourselves, courage not to follow the crowd when it is going the wrong way. And we can’t really make a wrong thing right merely because it is participated in by more than one person. The basis of judgment must be on individual acts, and a wrong isn’t right simply because it is done by a crowd. It is often lonely to part company with people who are going the wrong way, to turn back from a wrong road, but not nearly so lonely as it is to go to the end of it. We ought to follow goo things as far as they go, with loyalty for lawful and proper purposes, but not the wrong things, for improper purposes. To cite again the sentence from Abraham Lincoln: “Stand with anybody that stands right and part with him when he goes wrong.” What better advice could anyone give, in honor and in honesty?