Life & Wisdom Quote by Rex Stout

A “strong moral sense” is supposed to land as a credential; Stout snaps it in half with five words: “by my standards.” The line is a self-own that doubles as a flex, and that’s exactly why it works. It mocks the pious performance of morality while insisting, stubbornly, on a private code. Stout knows “moral” is a word people use to claim authority over others; the qualifier exposes that most moral talk is really about who gets to set the measuring stick.

The subtext is both cynical and oddly principled. On one level, it’s an admission that conscience is not an objective instrument but a personal calibration, prone to convenience. On another, it’s a refusal to outsource ethics to fashion, institutions, or whatever the crowd currently calls virtue. “By my standards” suggests a character who expects disagreement and isn’t seeking absolution. He’s not confessing; he’s preemptively disarming the jury.

Context matters: Stout’s world (especially in the orbit of Nero Wolfe) is thick with social hypocrisy - moneyed respectability, official corruption, respectable people doing disreputable things behind good manners. In that landscape, morality is less a halo than a weapon. The line skewers the idea that anyone’s standards are neutral, then quietly dares you to articulate yours. It’s funny because it’s true, and it’s unsettling because it implicates the reader in the same relativism it pretends to merely describe.