Quote by Roger Nash Baldwin
I cannot consistently, with self respect, do other than I have, namely, to deliberately violate an act which seems to me to be a denial of everything which ideally and in practice I hold sacred.
Summary
This quote expresses the speaker's inner conflict between following a certain act that goes against their values and principles, and maintaining their self-respect. The speaker believes that participating in the act in question would contradict and undermine what they hold as sacred and important in their belief system. Their refusal to comply is rooted in a conviction that doing otherwise would compromise their integrity and go against their personal ethics.