Whatever the consequences, do the right thing. This term alludes to woodcutting, and suggests that the cutter stick to the principal task and ignore the small pieces of wood flying about. It was used figuratively in a speech by Roscoe Conkling nominating General Ulysses S. Grant at the Republican Convention of 1880: “Hew to the line of right, let the chips fall where they may.” The expression was frequently quoted thereafter and was a cliché by the mid-twentieth century.