There is nothing more likely to drive a man mad, than the being unable to get rid of the idea of the distinction between right and wrong, and an obstinate, constitutional preference of the true to the agreeable.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.
—David Starr Jordan (1851–1931) American Zoologist, Educator, Peace Activist
To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
This above all—to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The glue that holds all relationships together — including the relationship between the leader and the led is trust, and trust is based on integrity.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker
It’s impossible to be loyal to your family, your friends, your country, and your principles, all at the same time.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
If we are ever in doubt about what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done.
—John Lubbock (1834–1913) English Politician, Biologist
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man I’ve met.
—Dwight L. Moody (1837–99) Christian Religious Leader, Publisher
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they will not apply themselves to me.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
A man is usually more careful of his money than of his principles.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won’t.
—Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) Polish-American Scientist, Philosopher of Language
Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.
—Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) British Head of State, Military Leader
Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.
—Harper Lee (1926–2016) American Novelist
Have a very good reason for everything you do.
—Laurence Olivier (1907–89) English Actor, Producer, Director
Have no fear of robbers or murderers. They are external dangers, petty dangers. We should fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices the real murders. The great dangers are within us. Why worry about what threatens our heads or purses? Let us think instead of what threatens our souls.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Don’t compromise yourself, it’s all you’ve got.
—Janis Joplin (1943–1970) American Singer-songwriter
It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
The time is always right to do what’s right.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.
—Joan Borysenko
You cannot believe in honor until you have achieved it. Better keep yourself clean and bright: you are the window through which you must see the world.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Live that you wouldn’t be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have either a clear conscience, or none at all.
—Ogden Nash (1902–71) American Writer of Sophisticated Light Verse
Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Charisma becomes the undoing of leaders. It makes them inflexible, convinced of their own infallibility, unable to change.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company.
—Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) American Elected Rep, Judge, Politician, Lawyer, Professor
Luck is always waiting for something to turn up. Labor, with keen eyes and strong will, always turns up something. Luck lies in bed and wishes the postman will bring news of a legacy. Labor turns out at six o’clock and with busy pen or ringing hammer, lays the foundation of a competence. Luck whines. Labor whistles. Luck relies on chance, labor on character.
—Richard Cobden
I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
I am, indeed, a king, because I know how to rule myself.
—Pietro Aretino (1492–1556) Italian Poet, Dramatist, Satirist
A pure hand needs no glove to cover it.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what’s right.
—Isaac Asimov (1920–92) Russian-born American Writer, Scientist
The quiet and solitary man apprehends the inscrutable. He seeks nothing, holds to the mean, and remains free from entanglements.
—I Ching Ancient Chinese Divination Text
Truth is the secret of eloquence and of virtue, the basis of moral authority; it is the highest summit of art and of life.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
There is an ongoing battle between conscience and self-interest in which, at some point, we have to take sides.
—Robert Brault
The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
—William Safire (1929–2009) American Columnist, Journalist, Author, Speechwriter
Goodness is beauty in the best estate.
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–93) English Playwright, Poet, Translator
Blessed is the servant who loves his brother as much when he is sick and useless as when he is well and can be of service to him. And blessed is he who loves his brother as well when he is afar off as when he is by his side, and who would say nothing behind his back he might not, in love, say before his face.
—Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) Italian Monk, Founder of the Franciscan Order
You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
I would rather be right than be president.
—Henry Clay (1777–1852) American Politician
Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody is going to know whether you did it or not.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
When you choose the lesser of two evils, always remember that it is still an evil.
—Max Lerner (1902–92) Russian-born American Journalist
Can one preach at home inequality of races and nations and advocate abroad good-will towards all men?
—Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American Journalist, Radio Personality
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
I have found some of the best reasons I ever had for remaining at the bottom simply by looking at the men at the top.
—Frank Moore Colby (1865–1925) American Educator, Writer
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
If we cannot live so as to be happy, let us at least live so as to deserve it.
—Immanuel Hermann Fichte (1796–1879) German Philosopher
There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
I will never again go to people under false pretenses even if it is to give them the Holy Bible. I will never again sell anything, even if I have to starve. I am going home now and I will sit down and really write about people.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good.
—Unknown
Do the next thing.
—John Wanamaker (1838–1922) American Merchant, Civil Servant
Never allow the integrity of your own way of seeing things and saying things to be swamped by the influence of a master, however great.
—George Parsons Lathrop (1851–98) American Poet, Novelist, Newspaper Editor
We grow with years more fragile in body, but morally stouter, and can throw off the chill of a bad conscience almost at once.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Character is higher than intellect… a great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.
—Japanese Proverb
Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Integrity has no need of rules.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition, to stand up for it.
—Archibald Alexander Hodge (1823–86) American Presbyterian Theologian
You do not wake up one morning a bad person. It happens by a thousand tiny surrenders of self-respect to self-interest.
—Robert Brault
Try not to become a man of success, but rather to become a man of value. He is considered successful in our day who gets more out of life than he puts in. But a man of value will give more than he receives.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud on the house-tops.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Living with integrity means:
* Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships.
* Asking for what you want and need from others.
* Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension.
* Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values.
* Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe.
—Barbara De Angelis (b.1951) American Lecturer, Author, TV Personality, Motivational Speaker
I did not use paint, I made myself up morally.
—Eleonora Duse (1859–1924) Italian Actress
Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke great and good men for their conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of moral courage.
—William Lloyd Garrison (1805–79) American Journalist, Abolitionist
What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient.
—Bodie Thoene
I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of goodwill. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Persons with weight of character carry, like planets, their atmospheres along with them in their orbits.
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English Novelist, Poet
I’m a slow walker, but I never walk back.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
For the human mind is seldom at stay: If you do not grow better, you will most undoubtedly grow worse.
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) English Novelist, Printer, Publisher