Quotes About Integrity

Valor is strength, not of legs and arms, but of heart and soul; it consists not in the worth of our horse or our weapons, but in our own.

Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness.

Between ourselves, there are two things that I have always observed to be in singular accord: supercelestial thoughts and subterranean conduct.

If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God and a coward towards men.

I speak the truth not so much as I want, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older.

A noble heart should not belie its thoughts; it wants to reveal itself even to its inmost depths. There everything is good, at least everything is human.

A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.

I will follow the good side right to the fire, but not into it if I can help it.

Without doubt, it is a delightful harmony when doing and saying go together.

Our understanding is conducted solely by means of the word: anyone who falsifies it betrays public society. It is the only tool by which we communicate our wishes and our thoughts; it is our soul's interpreter: if we lack that, we can no longer hold together; we can no longer know each other. When words deceive us, it breaks all intercourse and loosens the bonds of our polity.

No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living, but that ten times in his life he might not lawfully be hanged.

L'honneste est stable et permanent.

I myself am more ready to distort a fine saying in order to patch it on to me than to distort the thread of my argument to go in search of one. [A]

A man with nothing to lend should refrain from borrowing.

The shortest way to arrive at glory should be to do that for conscience which we do for glory.

The way of truth is one and artless: the way of private gain and success in such affairs as we are entrusted with is double, uneven and fortuitous. I

when Dandamys the Wise heard accounts of the lives of Socrates, Pythagoras and Diogenes, he said that they were in every way great personalities, except for their being too subject to venerating the Law: for, to support Law with its authority, true virtue must doff much of its original vigour; and many vicious deeds are done not merely with the Law's permission but at its instigation:13

It is a cowardly and servile characteristic, to go about in disguise, concealed behind a mask, without the courage to show oneself as one is … A generous heart should never disguise its thoughts, but willingly reveal its inmost depths. It is either all good, or all human.

Jeg har i øvrigt besluttet mig til at turde sige alt, hvad jeg har mod til at gøre i handling, ja, selv tanker, som ikke må komme frem, må jeg misbillige. Den sletteste handling og karakteregenskab hos mig forekommer mig slet ikke at være nær så styg som den lumpenhed, det er ikke at turde kendes ved den.

The way of truth is one and artless; the way of private gain and success...is double, uneven, and fortuitous.' -On the Useful and the Honourable.

quote about goodness Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one's own goodness.

For my part, I shall take care, if I can, that my death discover nothing that my life has not first and openly declared.

All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not the science of goodness.

Lying is an accursed vice. It is only our words which bind us together and make us human.