Quotes About Integrity

a false faith is capable of terrible and monstrous things.

The task is not to turn the world upside down but in a given place to do what, from the perspecive of reality, is necessary objectively and to really carry it out.

Jesus does not impose intolerable restrictions on his disciples, he does not forbid them to look at anything, but bids them look on him. If they do that he knows that their gaze will always be pure, even when they look upon a woman.

I fear that Christians who stand with only one leg upon earth also stand with only one leg in heaven (12 August 1943).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is wrong, in this age of necessary decisions, to bully people into decisions that are neither genuine nor necessary.

He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.

It is a strange fact that Christians and even ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they allow nothing to disturb them. They think they are doing God a service in this, but actually they are disdaining God's "crooked yet straight path" (Gottfried Arnold). They do not want a life that is crooked and balked.

Those who seek their own honor are no longer seeking God and their neighbor.

Who comes to the light? "Those who do what is true" (John 3:21)! What does this mean? Truth is supposed to happen; it is not only to be thought or willed, but to be done. Truth arises through action that is the opposite of pretense and darkness, which give rise to evil.

Perception, knowledge, and truth without love are nothing. They are not truth, for truth is God, and God is love. Therefore, truth without love is a lie.

The Christian community is not a spiritual sanatorium. Those who take refuge in community while fleeing from themselves are misusing it to indulge in empty talk and distraction, no matter how spiritual this idle talk and distraction may appear.

The only thing I am really clear about in the whole problem is that a 'culture' that breaks down in the face of danger is no culture.

Holy Scripture does not consist of individual passages; it is a unit and is intended to be used as such.

It does not matter what others do, but what we do. Do that which is good, without fear, and without limit or reserve. What right have we to blame the government when we do not that which is good ourselves? How can we pass judgment on others when we invite the same condemnation on ourselves? If you want to be fearless, do good.

Decisions, demanded by work, become easier and simpler where they are made not in the fear of men but only in the sight of God.

Better to be a beggar in freedom than to be forced into compromises against my conscience. —

On the other hand, every virtue and every good deed turns worthless if pride creeps into it - which happens whenever in some fashion we glory in our goodness.

Someone who has managed to build up a great fortune may look back at his achievements with some satisfaction, reflecting proudly, "I am a rich man." But he would do well to reflect, too, on the extent to which those riches are based on lies, deceit, and the overriding of others' interests—negative actions that in the long run will only engender suffering.

Our response to temptation reveals the substance of our faith.

Be willing to be unliked and ridiculed in order to speak the words of the One who matters most.

The true test of faith is how we treat those who can do nothing for us in return.

Accountability only works if you want it to.

If we are not receiving some type of ridicule for our beliefs, we are probably doing something wrong.