Quotes About Integrity

In days gone by, I stole a loaf of bread in order to live; to-day, in order to live, I will not steal a name.

Sire, said M. Myriel, you are looking at a good man, and I at a great man. Each of us can profit by it.

Dissimulation is an act of violence against yourself. A man hates those to whom he lies.

The prosperity of right is that it is always beautiful and pure.

Was there a voice that whispered in his ear that he had just passed the most solemn moment of his destiny, that there was no longer a middle course for him; that from now on, he would either be the best of men or he would be the worst of men; that he now had to rise higher, so to speak, than the bishop or fall even lower than the galley slave; that if he wanted to be good, he had to be an angel; that if he wanted to stay bad, he had to be a monster from hell?

The just man frowns, but never sneers. We understand anger, not malice.

A man's eye reveals his quality. It shows how much of a man there is within us. We declare ourselves by the light that gleams under our eyebrows. Petty spirits merely wink; great spirits emit a flash of lightning.

To be a saint is the exception; to be an upright man is the rule. Err, fall, sin if you will, but be upright.

A good mayor is a useful person. How can you hold back when you have the chance to do good?

One does not cross-examine a saint.

Part 1 A Just Man

Ignominy thirsts for respect.

To be wicked does not insure prosperity.

when both are sincere and good, no men so penetrate each other, and so amalgamate with each other, as an old priest and an old soldier. At bottom, the man is the same. The one has devoted his life to his country here below, the other to his country on high; that is the only difference.

Se per caso capiva che la sua infermità si tradisse per qualche apostrofe incoerente o per qualche domanda inintelligibile, la cosa passava per profondità presso alcuni, per imbecillità presso altri. In ambedue i casi l'onore della magistratura era salvo, perchè un giudice può essere benissimo profondo o imbecille a suo piacere, ma sordo no.

He who has not been a determined accuser during prosperity should hold his peace in adversity.

Cosa inaudita a constatarsi, e che risplende nella meravigliosa probità delle nostre rivoluzioni popolari, una certa incorruttibilità risulta dall'idea che è nell'aria di Parigi come il sale è nell'acqua dell'Oceano. Respirando Parigi, si conserva l'anima.

The senator...was a smart man who had made his way in life with a single-mindedness oblivious to any of those stumbling blocks known as conscience, sworn oaths, justice, duty...

Our acts make or mar us, we are the children of our own deeds.

Ah! indeed he must not be mounted. It does not suit his ideas to be a saddle-horse. Every one has his ambition. 'Draw? Yes. Carry? No.' We must suppose that is what he said to himself.

Eksige, olge nõrgad, patustage, kuid olge õiglased.

The peculiar property of truth is never to commit excesses. What need has it of exaggeration? There

Ser un santo es la excepción; ser un justo es la regla. Equivocaos, desfalleced, pecad, pero sed justos.

La honradez de un gran corazón, condensada en justicia y en verdad, fulmina.