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
The only exercise some people get is jumping to conclusions, running down their friends, side-stepping responsibility, and pushing their luck.
—Unknown
The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Be right, and then be easy to live with, if possible, but in that order.
—Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) American Mormon Religious Leader
You don’t carry in your countenance a letter of recommendation.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Take care that no one hates you justly.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
There is an ongoing battle between conscience and self-interest in which, at some point, we have to take sides.
—Robert Brault
Be good. And if you can’t be good, be careful. And if you can’t be careful, name it after me.
—Unknown
In each human heart are a tiger, a pig, an ass and a nightingale. Diversity of character is due to their unequal activity.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Honesty is the cornerstone of all success, without which confidence and ability to perform shall cease to exist.
—Mary Kay Ash (1918–2001) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
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
Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.
—Samuel Butler
You can’t, in sound morals, condemn a man for taking care of his own integrity. It is his clear duty. And least of all can you condemn an artist pursuing, however humbly and imperfectly, a creative aim. In that interior world where his thought and his emotions go seeking for the experience of imagined adventures, there are no policemen, no law, no pressure of circumstance or dread of opinion to keep him within bounds. Who then is going to say Nay to his temptations if not his conscience?
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
I’m a slow walker, but I never walk back.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
In failing circumstances no one can be relied on to keep their integrity.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they always keep.
—Denis Waitley (b.1933) American Motivational Speaker, Author
Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience.
—Doug Larson (1926–2017) American Columnist
If a man is not rising upward to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downward to be a devil. He cannot stop at the beast. The most savage of men are not beasts; they are worse, a great deal worse.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Live with integrity, respect the rights of other people, and follow your own bliss.
—Nathaniel Branden (1930–2014) American Psychotherapist
A task becomes a duty from the moment you suspect it to be an essential part of that integrity which alone entitles a man to assume responsibility.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of tricks and duplicity than straightforward and simple integrity in another.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
A man is usually more careful of his money than of his principles.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves – such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine. The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honour and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul?
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
There is a difference between him who does no misdeeds because of his own conscience and him who is kept from wrongdoing because of the presence of others.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
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
Goodness is beauty in the best estate.
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–93) English Playwright, Poet, Translator
A person is not given integrity. It results from the relentless pursuit of honesty at all times.
—Unknown
That’s what I love about integrity. Each time we go inside, that’s where it is.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Fame or integrity: which is more important? Money or happiness: which is more valuable? Success or failure: which is more destructive? If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never truly be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
I hate mankind, for I think of myself as one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won’t.
—Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) Polish-American Scientist, Philosopher of Language
It is his nature, not his standing, that makes the good man.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
The Lord doesn’t ask about your ability, only your availability; and, if you prove your dependability, the Lord will increase your capability.
—Unknown
Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.
—Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) British Head of State, Military Leader
I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat, then you know he never will.
—John D. MacDonald (1916–86) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
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
Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
The slow man with integrity will ultimately catch the swift one who has none.
—Unknown
He that doth not as other men do, but endeavoureth that which ought to be done, shall thereby rather incur peril than preservation; for who so laboreth to be sincerely perfect and good shall necessarily perish, living among men that are generally evil.
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
To do an evil act is base. To do a good one without incurring danger, is common enough. But it is the part of a good man to do great and noble deeds though he risks everything in doing them.
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
Live that you wouldn’t be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
The person who is slowest in making a promise is most faithful in its performance.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State