walk the moral high ground

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

to conduct oneself according to ethical principles, maintaining one's integrity and values even when it is difficult or costly to do so, and refusing to descend to the tactics of those who behave worse; taking the moral high ground means choosing principle over expedience, absorbing disadvantage rather than compromising one's standards, and trusting that ethical conduct will ultimately be vindicated; critics of the phrase note that it can function as self-congratulation or as an excuse for ineffectiveness — the person who refuses to compromise may preserve their purity while losing a contest whose outcome matters enormously to others; the tension between moral purity and practical effectiveness is one of the central dilemmas of political ethics