Quotes About Integrity

And I will keep mentioning that I have no other definition of success than leading an honorable life.

But it was incredible how fear and danger never produced ignoble words but always true ones, words that were torn from your very heart.

Most virtue is a demand for greater seduction.

Rogan] "I've been watching you, and you're more confident and decisive than any woman I've ever known. There's no pretense to you. No concern that what you're doing is the wrong thing, or that you're not doing it right." "And you don't like those traits in a woman?" "I do. I didn't know that until I found them.

When you believe in something, stand up for it, even if everyone is sitting.

The challenge for people today--and it is not and easy one--is to maintain high personal standards even while feeling that one is living in a moral sewer.

One of the great self-deceptions--and one of the great foolishnesses--is to tell yourself, Only I will know. Only you will know that you are a liar; only you will know you deal unethically with people who trust you; only you will know you have no intention of honoring your promise. Whose knowledge or judgment do you imagine is more important? It is precisely your own ego from which there is no escape.

In any culture, subculture, or family in which belief is valued above thought, and self-surrender is valued above self-expression, and conformity is valued above integrity, those who preserve their self-esteem are likely to be heroic exceptions.

Instead of seeking self-esteem through consciousness, responsibility, and integrity, we may seek it through popularity, material acquisitions, or sexual exploits.

Living consciously implies that my first loyalty is to truth, not to making myself right.

Consciousness that is not translated into appropriate action is a betrayal of consciousness . . . Living consciously is living responsibly toward reality. We do not necessarily have to like what we see but we recognize that wishes or fears or denials do not alter facts.

While healthy self-assertiveness requires the ability to say no, it is ultimately tested not by what we are against but by what we are for.

When we behave in ways that conflict with our judgment of what is appropriate, we lose face in our own eyes.

Certain religious teachings implicitly or explicitly damn sex, damn pleasure, damn the body, damn ambition, damn material success, damn (for all practical purposes) the enjoyment of life on Earth. If children are indoctrinated with these teachings, what will the practice of integrity mean in their lives? Some enemy's my elements of hypocrisy may be all that keeps them alive

At best, the responsible student may learn a new concept of human relationships that rejects the propriety of practicing human sacrifice.

When our behavior is congruent with our professed values, when ideals and practice match, we have integrity.

Most of the issues of integrity we face are not big issues but small ones, yet the accumulated weight of our choices has an impact on our sense of self.

Certain religious teachings implicitly or explicitly damn sex, damn pleasure, damn the body, damn ambition, damn material success, damn (for all practical purposes) the enjoyment of life on Earth. If children are indoctrinated with these teachings, what will the practice of integrity mean in their lives? Some elements of hypocrisy may be all that keeps them alive

To honor the self—to honor mind, judgment, values, and convictions—is the ultimate act of courage.

For many people, self-surrender and self-sacrifice are far easier. They do not require the integrity and responsibility that intelligent selfishness requires.

It expresses itself in an ease in talking of accomplishments or short-comings with directness and honesty, since one is in friendly relationship to facts.

I learned that the temptation to self-betrayal can sometimes be worst with those about whom we care the most. I learned that no amount of admiration for another human being can justify sacrificing one's judgment.

Once we see that living up to our standards appears to be leading us toward self-destruction, the time has come to question our standards rather than simply resigning ourselves to living without integrity.

The higher the level of consciousness at which we operate, the more we live by explicit choice and the more naturally does integrity follow as a consequence.