Quotes About Integrity

Do nothing against thy will, nor contrary to the community, nor without due examination, nor with reluctancy.

VIII. Never esteem of anything as profitable, which shall ever constrain thee either to break thy faith, or to lose thy modesty; to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to dissemble, to lust after anything, that requireth the secret of walls or veils.

5. Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice; and to give thyself relief from all other thoughts. And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given to thee.

No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.

The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like [the wrong-doer].

Perfection of character: to live your last day, every day, without frenzy, or sloth, or pretense

When thou hast assumed these names, good, modest, true, rational, a man of equanimity, and magnanimous, take care that thou dost not change these names; and if thou shouldst lose them, quickly return to them. And remember that the term Rational was intended to signify a discriminating attention to every several thing and freedom from negligence; and that Equanimity is the voluntary acceptance of the things

whilst yet thou livest, whilst thou mayest, be good.

Yes, you can—if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.

Whatever anyone does or says, I must be a good man. It is as if an emerald, or gold or purple, were always saying: 'Whatever anyone does or says, I must be an emerald and keep my own colour.

How unsound and insincere is he who says, I have determined to deal with thee in a fair way.—What art thou doing, man?

To be cheerful, and to stand in no need, either of other men's help or attendance, or of that rest and tranquillity, which thou must be beholding to others for. Rather like one that is straight of himself, or hath ever been straight, than one that hath been rectified.

Nothing will stand in the way of thy acting justly and soberly and considerately.

Self-contraction: the mind's requirements are satisfied by doing what we should, and by the calm it brings to us.

Rationality is the quality of seeing past appearances to discern the true nature of things. We call a person rational who is evenhanded and unprejudiced. Equanimity means the calm acceptance of all that exists and all that happens. Magnanimity means greatness of spirit, unmoved by the lure of pleasure, the lust for fame, and the fear of death.

The highest good was the virtuous life. Virtue alone is happiness, and vice is unhappiness. Carrying this theory to its extreme, the Stoic said that there could be no gradations between virtue and vice, though of course each has its special manifestations.

a ripe mature man, a perfect sound man; one that could not endure to be flattered; able to govern both himself and others.

ÄŒasto sa dopúÅ¡Å¥a bezprávia aj ten, kto ni? nerobí, nielen ten, kto nie?o robí.

I have no right to do myself an injury. Have I ever injured anyone else if I could avoid it?

The only thing that isn't worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly. And be patient with those who don't.

Not to be slack and negligent; or loose, and wanton in thy actions; nor contentious, and troublesome in thy conversation; nor to rove and wander in thy fancies and imaginations. Not basely to contract thy soul; nor boisterously to sally out with it, or furiously to launch out as it were, nor ever to want employment.

If anybody shall reprove me, and shall make it apparent unto me, that in any either opinion or action of mine I do err, I will most gladly retract. For it is the truth that I seek after, by which I am sure that never any man was hurt; and as sure, that he is hurt that continueth in any error, or ignorance whatsoever.

Don't imagine that something is good for you if, in pursuing it, you must break a promise, harm anyone else, lose self-respect, act hypocritically, or hide in shame.

In the mind that is once truly disciplined and purged, thou canst not find anything, either foul or impure, or as it were festered: nothing that is either servile, or affected: no partial tie; no malicious averseness; nothing obnoxious; nothing concealed.