Ethical Integrity Quotes

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.

Those who don't fight evil hate those who do; and those who don't fight real evils make up little evils

Integrity is not so much what we do as much as who we are.

The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.

Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right.

I am not aware that payment, or even favors, however gracious, bind any man's soul and conscience in questions of highest morality and highest importance.

Where the roots of private virtue are diseased, the fruit of public probity cannot but be corrupt.

To be tempted is not to sin. The strongest attacks are made on the strongest forts.

A house can have integrity, just like a person.

In justice is all virtues found in sum.

The distinction of being without an honour is becoming a rare and valuable one and should not become extinct.

True virtue, wheresoever it moves, still carries an intrinsic worth about it.

Of all evil I deem you capable: Therefore I want good from you. Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws.

No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person. Two people, when they love each other, grow alike in their tastes and habits and pride, but their moral natures (whatever we may mean by that canting expression) are never welded. The base one goes on being base, and the noble one noble, to the end.

To secure integrity there must a lofty sense of duty and a deep responsibility to future times as well as to God.

The amiable is a duty most certainly, but must not be exercised at the expense of any of the virtues. He who seeks to do the amiable always, can only be successful at the frequent expense of his manhood.

Knowledge is not a loose-leaf notebook of facts. Above all, it is a responsibility for the integrity of what we are, primarily of what we are as ethical creatures.

Moral cowardice and intellectual corruption are the natural concomitants of unchallenged privilege.

With every physical pain, my moral fibre unravels a little.

Degrees do not matter... one does not bargain about inches of evil.

Integrity, honesty, and honor may not give immediate rewards or gratification, and they can be life-threatening (for example, being a whistle-blower or turning state's evidence). The absence of integrity, honesty, and honor do not always bring punishment or scorn, and can be life-aggrandizing (connivers and cheats often gain power and wealth). Therefore, morality must be its own reward.

Those who conduct themselves with morality, integrity and consistency need not fear the forces of inhumanity and cruelty.

No profit to honour, no honour to Religion.