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When we think about our most meaningful connections – the ones that feel safe, deep, and solid – what’s holding them up?
Beneath the shared laughter, the affection, there is a bedrock. And that bedrock is what we call integrity.
It’s not a performance or a bid for applause. It’s the personal choice to do the right thing when no one is watching, with no need to claim credit for it.
It’s the gentle, moment-by-moment work of closing the gap between our values and our actions, so that the person we are on the inside is the person we show to the world.
We live in such a fast-paced time. Trust feels fragile, like a thin sheet of ice, and reputations, built over years, often feels like they could tarnish in a single moment.
In this hurried, noisy world, integrity isn’t just a “nice-to-have” quality; it has become more essential than ever. The journey of cultivating that inner compass is not always easy, but it is one of the most rewarding we can take.
Let us embark on that journey by reflecting on the following integrity quotes, shall we?
Highlights
- The list below examines the multifaceted nature of integrity, from its role as the foundation of trust to its complex relationship with authenticity, courage, compassion, and moral dilemmas.
- These reflections from philosophers, writers, and spiritual teachers are intended to be a source of inspiration, a tool for self-reflection, and a gentle reminder of the strength found in our own inner truth.
Short Integrity Quotes
Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.
C. S. Lewis
True character isn’t a performance; it’s the default setting – who you are in the quiet, unseen moments.
Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.
Oprah Winfrey
This goes a step further. It’s not just if no one is watching, but acting right knowing you will get zero credit or validation for it.
Be impeccable with your word.
Don Miguel Ruiz
Words have power to either construct or destroy, so make sure to use them wisely and truthfully!
Famous quotes about integrity
If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.
Alan Simpson
As long as one acts with honest intention, then failure will never define them!
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
Marcus Aurelius
Rather than engaging in endless fruitless debates, one only needs to demonstrate what they believe in through real work. Action, not theory, is what counts in the end.
Inspirational Quotes About Integrity
I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.
Abraham Lincoln
While the outcome is unpredictable, we can always rely on our own conscience as an internal compass in everything we do.
Integrity is the essence of everything successful.
R. Buckminster Fuller
Without that solid foundation of ethical consistency, any structure of success – whether in business, science, engineering, or personal life – will eventually crumble.
Integrity is everything quotes
Integrity gives you real freedom because you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide.
Zig Ziglar
When your actions and intentions are consistent with your ethics, there’s no need for secrecy, cover-ups, or selective memory. The result is freedom from the anxiety, stress, and potential consequences of exposure.
Business ethics quotes
Honesty and integrity are absolutely essential for success in life – all areas of life.
Zig Ziglar
Indeed. Not just for work or relationships, it’s the vital ingredient for any part of life to truly flourish.
Short integrity quotes for work
One person of integrity can make a difference.
Elie Wiesel
It may feel isolating to stand alone. Yet, an unwavering moral stance is exactly what inspires courage in others.
Character and Integrity Quotes
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
Thomas Paine
It’s like a piece of paper: once crumpled, it’s never quite the same. Protecting one’s character daily is far less exhausting than trying to repair it.
Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Mahatma Gandhi
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.
Integrity isn’t one big choice, but the sum of thousands of tiny, cascading actions that start in the mind.
It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
J. K. Rowling
Talent is just potential. What we do with that potential, especially when faced with a difficult decision, is what defines us.
If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.
J. K. Rowling
How people behave when they have all the power reveals everything. Kindness to those who offer no strategic advantage is the real test.
A man with integrity quotes
Your true character is most accurately measured by how you treat those who can do nothing for you.
Mother Teresa
Yes, it is the ultimate measure – the difference between transactional kindness and genuine compassion.
Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
Albert Einstein
Apathy and cynicism aren’t passive states. Over time, they actively erode the moral fiber that allows us to stand for something.
You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.
Carl Jung
Actions are the visible, tangible proof of identity. It is in the doing that we may find ourselves.
Read more: 55 Self-discovery Quotes – Know Thyself
A man’s true greatness lies in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life.
Marcus Aurelius
Greatness does not lie in fame or wealth. It stems from knowing your “why” and living it truthfully.
Read more: 105 Stoic Quotes for a Virtuous & Fulfilling Existence
Good behaviour is in essence the absence of the self, the me. It shows itself in politeness, in consideration for others, yielding without losing integrity.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
When the ego steps aside, true integrity emerges. It is when one stops wondering “what’s in it for me?” and instead asks oneself “what is right?”
Lack of Integrity Quotes
A half-truth is a whole lie.
Yiddish Proverb
Deception by omission is still deception. The intent to mislead is what matters, and it shatters trust just as completely.
The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.
Stephen King
A disheartening observation, yet it also demonstrates the preciousness of integrity – what will happen when it’s weaponized against the good nature of others.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
Warren Buffett
Trust is the most valuable, and most fragile, asset. That’s why one should treasure it wholeheartedly and keep it in mind whenever they speak or do something.
A man without integrity quote
The name of the game, moving the money from the client’s pocket to your pocket.
Mark Hanna, ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (2013)
We see this a lot in today’s world, don’t we? The prevalence mindset in the business world is a zero-sum game built on deception and self-interest – no wonder it’s so hard to establish trust and long-lasting relationships.
We’ve created a system that biases towards false information. Not because we want to, but because false information makes the companies more money than the truth. The truth is boring.
The Social Dilemma (2020)
This is a very real issue nowadays. Acting with integrity means actively fighting for truth in an environment that profits from sensationalism and falsehood.
Mundus vult decipi: the world wants to be deceived. The truth is too complex and frightening; the taste for the truth is an acquired taste that few acquire.
Martin Buber
Nothing in this world is simple nor certain, and yet, our tendency is to prefer a comfortable lie over a difficult truth. How can we act out of integrity, if we just succumb to that collective desire?
Quotes About Integrity, Trust, Credibility and Respect
Trust is built when someone is vulnerable and not taken advantage of.
Bob Vanourek
Responding with integrity and care is how a real, long-lasting relationship is forged.
Consistency is the true foundation of trust. Either keep your promises or do not make them.
Roy T. Bennett
Trust does not come from on grand, one-time gestures. It’s built on the quiet daily act of your word matching your actions.
The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity.
Zig Ziglar
People can sense authenticity. When they know you are being truthful, they are more willing to listen and connect.
Integrity quotes
The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.
Ernest Hemingway
To open oneself is to risk being hurt, and yet it’s the only way to move a relationship beyond suspicion.
To earn trust, money and power aren’t enough; you have to show some concern for others. You can’t buy trust in the supermarket.
Dalai Lama XIV
Trust is a human, emotional currency. It’s earned not through status, but through genuine concern for the well-being of others.
Read more: 50 Essential Emotional Intelligence Quotes for Success
Quotes about Humility, Dignity, and Integrity
Pride makes us artificial; humility makes us real.
Thomas Merton
Pride (or the ego in general) is a mask, constructed to impress. By letting go of the need to be perfect or superior, one is free to live with authenticity and integrity.
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
Rick Warren
If you are thinking of yourself less, you are less likely to sacrifice honesty, moral principles, or the truth for the sake of personal gain, image, or ego protection. In other words, it allows you to maintain the “essence” of a successful character.
The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.
Cicero
Power and influence are tests of character. True integrity is using that height to lift others, not to look down.
Humble integrity quotes
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Theodore Roosevelt
Knowledge without empathy is just noise. Connection is the prerequisite for any meaningful influence or communication.
All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are.
Lao Tzu
There is immense power in receptiveness and humility. By being open and not needing to be “on top,” one becomes a gathering place for strength.
Moral Integrity Quotes
The time is always right to do what is right.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Procrastination is the enemy of integrity. There’s no need to wait for the perfect moment; the choice for morality is always available!
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
Samuel Johnson
The combination of good intentions and wisdom is crucial to truly make an impact that lasts.
Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.
Potter Stewart
Legality is not morality. Many times, true integrity requires one to operate in the space beyond the rules, governed by an internal compass (or intuition, as referred to by many people).
Quotes about ethics
Ultimately, the source of our problems lies at the level of the individual. If people lack moral values and integrity, no system of laws and regulations will be adequate. So long as people give priority to material values, then injustice, corruption, inequity, intolerance, and greed – all the outward manifestations of neglect of inner values – will persist.
Dalai Lama XIV
It’s tempting to blame “the system.” But systems are made of people, and societal change begins with individual, internal moral cultivation.
A man’s ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs.
Albert Einstein
Morality isn’t just an abstract set of rules. It’s a living, breathing thing born from connecting with and doing one’s best to understand others.
We’re all human, aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.
J. K. Rowling
Everyone has their own dignity, no matter where they come from or what they are capable of. There is no exception.
Dignity and integrity quotes
In the first place, was that silver ours? Madame Magloire, I have for a long time detained that silver wrongfully. It belonged to the poor. Who was that man? A poor man, evidently.
Bishop Myriel, ‘Les Misérables’
If you think deeply about it, one’s possessions are never one’s own – but a trustee’s asset meant to serve others and benefit a greater whole.
Read more: 145 Suffering Quotes – Finding Light in the Darkness
Spiritual Integrity Quotes
Whoever walks in integrity walks securely.
Proverbs 10:9
Integrity makes your path stable – because it removes the internal conflict and external threats caused by pretense and dishonesty. You don’t have to look over your shoulder, because your conscience and actions are aligned.
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Don’t outsource your conscience. The ultimate spiritual responsibility is to be true to your own understanding of the truth.
Self integrity quotes
Do well by doing good.
Benjamin Franklin
Indeed. The most sustainable form of success, both material and spiritual, comes from contributing value to others.
No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
Luke 16:13
You cannot simultaneously live for integrity and for popular approval (or money, or power). At some point, you will be forced to choose one.
A wise man built his house on a rock. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn’t fall, for it was founded on the rock. A foolish man built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell – and great was its fall.
Matthew 7:24-27
Character is the foundation. When the inevitable storms of life hit, it’s the only thing that will keep you standing.
Integrity quotes from the Bible
By oneself is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself is one made pure.
Buddha, The Dhammapada, Chapter 12, ‘The Self’
The path is entirely your own. Your moral character ( “purity” or “defilement”) is a measure of your own self-control and commitment to truth.
I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir.
Upajjhatthana Sutta
We inherit the consequences of our own choices, for better or worse. Integrity, therefore, is the only truly secure investment – it is the seed of all future experience.
Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
James 2:17
Indeed. Your moral principles must be visibly demonstrated through your deeds to be considered true.
Quotes about Integrity, Leadership and Influence
It is now, more than ever, necessary that political leaders be outstanding for honesty, integrity and commitment to the common good.
Jorge Bergoglio (Francis)
Indeed. Those in leadership positions are tasked with the duty to prioritize moral uprightness over personal or party gain. In a world facing complex crises, true authority must be founded on a demonstrable commitment to the welfare and shared prosperity of all citizens.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
John Quincy Adams
Leadership isn’t about control or titles. It’s about living with such integrity and vision that you elevate the people around you.
The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Without it, nothing else works. Strategy, intelligence, and charisma are useless, or even dangerous, if not grounded in trustworthiness.
Integrity quotes for leaders
You don’t build a business – you build people – then people build the business.
Zig Ziglar
Investing in the growth and well-being of people is the only sustainable path to any collective success.
Integrity in the workplace quotes
You can evaluate the quality of your authority by looking deeply to see if compassion is the foundation of your leadership.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Is your influence rooted in fear, or in care? Power wielded without compassion is mere domination, not true leadership.
Ethical leadership quotes
Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others.
Confucius
The virtuous path is not a solitary one. Personal growth naturally extends into a desire to help others find their own footing and success.
Honesty and Integrity Quotes
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
Thomas Jefferson
Before one can learn anything new, one must first be honest about what they do and don’t know.
Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Self-deception is the most insidious lie. It corrodes the very foundation of the self, making it impossible to see the world, or others, clearly.
Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.
Spencer Johnson
You can be momentarily honest without deep integrity, but you cannot maintain true integrity without consistent honesty.
For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth.
Bo Bennett
Lies are short-term solutions that create long-term problems. The truth, while often harder to embrace, is the path that one should strive for – so as to attain a clean, stable future.
Integrity quotes
How easy it is to see your brother’s faults
Buddha, The Dhammapada, Chapter 18, ‘Impurity’
How hard to face your own
You winnow his in the wind like chaff
But yours you hide
Like a cheat covering up an unlucky throw.
It’s so tempting to focus on the specks in others’ eyes. And yet, doing so will only give rise to moral arrogance – the deception that your own flaws are insignificant or nonexistent compared to others – which is, indeed, a major barrier to living authentically.
I am hiding nothing from you either great or small in my speech, nor am I holding anything back. And yet I know rather well that I incur hatred by these very things; which is also a proof that I speak the truth, and that this is the slander against me, and that these are its causes.
Plato, ‘The Apology of Socrates’
Speaking or doing what is right is not a popularity contest; many times, one is likely to be met with resistance. Even in that case, one must remain the ultimate “owner of their actions” – accepting the difficult inheritance of living by the truth.
Honesty and truthfulness quotes
Quotes about Self-awareness, Authenticity and Integrity
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A person who can consistently “be the change” by being true to themselves, rather than conforming to others’ demand, has indeed achieved the highest form of security and freedom.
To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.
Thich Nhat Hanh
When you stop striving to fit an external ideal, your own unique light (even if it is imperfect) will finally be able to shine.
Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.
Harper Lee, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’
The ultimate allegiance is to one’s own conscience. Even if the entire world disagrees, you are the one who has to live with your choices.
Self integrity quotes
We have the choice of two identities: the external mask which seems to be real… and the hidden, inner person who seems to us to be nothing, but who can give himself eternally to the truth in whom he subsists.
Thomas Merton
This is the core work of self-discovery. It’s the journey of letting the mask fall away to connect with what lies within.
To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
The integrity of the process (making a free, self-examined choice) is much more valuable than the painful or negative result. (hence the need to own your path, including the detours)
The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Growth requires shedding. Integrity isn’t about being rigidly unchanging; it’s about having the courage to let go of old beliefs that no longer serve the truth.
Read more: 85 Embracing Change Quotes – Thriving in Transformation
Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.
Søren Kierkegaard
You cannot change what you do not acknowledge. Radical honesty with oneself is necessary (although painful) first step toward transformation.
Read more: 50 Facing Fears Quotes – Unleash the Power Within
Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.
Marcus Aurelius
The answers are not outside. The well of resilience, wisdom, and integrity is internal, waiting to be accessed.
People of integrity and honesty not only practice what they preach, they are what they preach.
David A. Bednar
When one’s moral nature becomes so intrinsic that it is inseparable from one’s outward expression, then one has already achieved the highest level of integrity.
Read more: 155 Quotes About Identity & Self – Mirrors of the Soul
Integrity Quotes for Relationship
If you are honest, truthful, and transparent, people trust you. If people trust you, you have no grounds for fear, suspicion or jealousy.
Dalai Lama XIV
What a freeing way to live! This kind of transparency creates relationships built on peace, not on anxiety and guesswork.
If I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.
1 Corinthians 13:1
Truth without compassion is just noise, or even cruelty. Integrity in relationships must be grounded in love to have any positive meaning.
Read more: 84 Unconditional Love Quotes for Every Soul
When I confront a human being as my Thou and speak the basic word I-Thou to him, then he is no thing among things nor does he consist of things. He is no longer He or She, a dot in the world grid of space and time, nor a condition to be experienced and described, a loose bundle of named qualities. Neighborless and seamless, he is Thou and fills the firmament. Not as if there were nothing but he; but everything else lives in his light.
Martin Buber
To see another person in their full, sacred humanity – not as an object to be used – is the foundation of all ethical relationships.
We often hear of someone saying, ‘So you don’t trust me’ or ‘Are you questioning my integrity?’ or ‘You don’t believe me.’ They get defensive and angry because someone questions their actions, and they think they are above being questioned or having to prove their trustworthiness. But none of us is above questioning.
Henry Cloud
Defensiveness is often a sign that something is being hidden. A person with real integrity isn’t afraid of transparency.
When someone questions your integrity quotes
Even if one does not have sufficient objective grounds for trusting someone, one believes. One believes unconditionally without concerning oneself with such things as security. That is confidence. It is precisely because we lay a foundation of unconditional confidence that it is possible for us to build a deep relationship.
Ichiro Kishimi, ‘The Courage to Be Disliked’
A relationship cannot last with suspicion. The choice to trust is a prerequisite; it’s the “plowed field” where a deep connection can grow.
Let none deceive another
Metta Sutta
Or despise any being in any state
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Just as integrity is telling yourself the truth, it logically follows that the external commitment is not to harm others intentionally.
Quotes about Integrity, Courage, and Adversity
Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy.
Brené Brown
Our tendency is to desire the easy, fast, fun option. And yet far too often, integrity demands that we pause, take a breath, and pick the path that aligns with our values – no matter how uncertain or tough it may seem.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Anyone can have “integrity” when things are easy. True character is revealed only when a stand costs you something.
In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.
Viktor Frankl
External conditions, no matter how horrific, do not determine character. They reveal it. The choice always remains.
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Viktor Frankl
Even in the face of total powerlessness, the integrity of the inner self can never be seized.
It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
J. K. Rowling
This is often the harder test. To risk social rejection for the sake of what is right requires an incredibly strong inner compass.
Integrity quotes
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
Chinese Proverb
Don’t resent difficulties. They are the very tools that shape and reveal your character.
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
Helen Keller
Indeed. The soul is strengthened by the “reps” of overcoming adversity, not by avoiding it.
Read more: 100 Quotes About Overcoming Obstacles
Better die on your feet than live on your knees.
Vietnamese Proverb
A powerful call to value-based living. To be shattered while maintaining one’s values – rather than remaining whole and compromising.
Read more: 120 Overcoming Sadness Quotes – From Sorrow to Strength
Philosophical Integrity Quotes
Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.
Anonymous (sometimes attributed to Marcus Aurelius)
Personal integrity is the one constant, necessary, and inherently valuable choice in a universe of unknowns.
Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law.
Immanuel Kant
The “categorical imperative” in simple terms. Before you act, ask: “Would I want everyone in the world to do this?” If not, it’s time to reconsider everything.
It is not necessary that whilst I live I live happily; but it is necessary that so long as I live I should live honourably.
Immanuel Kant
If morality were based on pursuing happiness, our actions would change with our feelings or circumstances. The value of what one does lies not in its result (happiness) but in the maxim (rule) guiding it. The act is honorable only if the rule behind it could be rationally willed to become a universal law.
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Evelyn Beatrice Hall (sometimes attributed to Voltaire)
It’s easy to be comfortable with we like; and yet, true integrity requires us to be completely OK with conflicting views. The right to speak, after all, is the ultimate expression of the autonomous will and the ability to “go wrong in one’s own way.”
We can be redeemed only to the extent to which we see ourselves.
Martin Buber
Redemption isn’t about being “saved” by an outside force. It’s the hard, internal work of seeing, acknowledging, and taking responsibility for one’s own shadow.
That even in the darkest of times we have the right to expect some illumination, and that such illumination might well come less from theories and concepts than from the uncertain, flickering, and often weak light that some men and women, in their lives and their works, will kindle under almost all circumstances and shed over the time span that was given to them.
Hannah Arendt, ‘Men in Dark Times’
Moral integrity is the only reliable form of light in a broken world, and it is born only from the vulnerable, courageous, and persistent choices of individuals.
Read more: 140 Uncertainty Quotes – Finding Peace in the “Not Knowing”
Purity of heart is to will one thing.
Søren Kierkegaard
A simple, yet incredibly difficult, definition of integrity. It means to be undivided, to have all one’s inner energies aligned toward a single, good purpose.
Integrity quotes
The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent, but if we can come to terms with this indifference, then our existence as a species can have genuine meaning. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.
Stanley Kubrick
More than just a personal choice, acting with integrity is an existential necessity – especially in a chaotic and uncertain world. We must create the moral order we wish to see.
Read more: 100 Existential Quotes – Rethink One’s Place in the Universe
Man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is HE who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.
Viktor Frankl
The act of taking full responsibility for one’s actions and choices to create the meaning of one’s own existence is not an optional virtue – but the fundamental human obligation.
Read more: 60 Quotes on the Meaning of Life
Quotes about the Complexity of Integrity (Moral Dilemmas)
We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.
J. K. Rowling
The classic dilemma. Integrity rarely lives in the easy choice. It’s almost always found on the path of greater resistance.
In law, a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics, he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.
Immanuel Kant
True honor lies not in avoiding legal punishment, but in achieving a pure moral will that would never assent to an unjust thought in the first place. You are responsible for the entire, private landscape of your mind.
The opposite of a true statement is a false statement, but the opposite of a profound truth is usually another profound truth.
Niels Bohr
The world isn’t simple black and white. Wisdom is being able to hold two contradictory truths in your mind at the same time.
Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good.
Thomas Aquinas
“Absolute evil” cannot exist, because everything that exists is good; evil is, after all, a non-being. Just like how blindness is not a “thing” that exists; it is the privation (lack) of sight in an organism designed to see.
There is no such thing in the world as absolute evil or absolute good. There is good to be found within evil, and plenty of evil to be found within the good.
Shusaku Endo
Since evil is merely the absence of good, it has no positive reality or absolute essence. A wicked person is still a person, possessing the goods of existence, intelligence, and will, though their will is deprived or lacking in the proper direction toward the Highest Good.
Sometimes the truth isn’t good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.
Batman, ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
What happens when the truth seemingly causes more harm than a lie? Is a “noble lie” an act of integrity or a betrayal of it?
Show God you love Him! Save the lives of the people He loves. There is something more important than the judgment of the Church. You are now going to fulfill the most painful act of love that has ever been performed.
Father Ferreira, ‘Silence’ (2016)
The ultimate dilemma. Ethical integrity, when pushed to its limit, demands that active compassion for others override self-serving piety and institutional law.
Movie Quotes on Integrity
I was at the age of your son, our house was overrun by partisan border guards. My father was beaten, my mother was beaten, and this man, my father’s friend, he was beaten. And I watched this man. Every time they hit him, he stood back up again. So they hit him harder. Still he got back to his feet. I think because of this they stopped the beating. They let him live. “Stoikey Muzhik,” I remember them saying… “Stoikey Muzhik.” Which sort of means like uh, ‘standing man’.
Rudolf Abel, ‘Bridge of Spies’ (2015)
Not fighting back, not winning, but simply standing back up every time you are knocked down for your principles. That is what integrity is all about.
There were eleven votes for guilty. It’s not easy to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first.
Juror 8, ’12 Angry Men’ (1957)
The integrity of “reasonable doubt.” One person’s courage to question the consensus is the only thing standing between a group and a terrible injustice.
The case made against these men is a mockery of all human justice. Gentlemen of the court, to find these men guilty would be a crime, to haunt each of you till the day you die. I can’t believe that the noblest impulse for man – his compassion for another – can be completely dead here.
Colonel Dax, ‘Paths of Glory’ (1957)
Integrity in judgment requires one to look beyond its written rules – and acknowledge everyone’s shared humanity. Any justice that fails to incorporate compassion is no justice at all.
Power – is when we have every justification to kill, and we don’t. A man stole something, he’s brought in before the Emperor, he throws himself down on the ground. He begs for mercy, he knows he’s going to die. And the Emperor pardons him. This worthless man, he lets him go. That is power.
Schindler’s List (1993)
The ultimate manifestation of a pure moral will. It is a responsible decision that is not dictated by fear, law, or external reward, but by an internal commitment to goodness. As Alexander Pope has said: “To err is human, to forgive divine”.
Ra’s al Ghul: ‘Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share.’
Batman Begins (2005)
Batman: ‘That’s why it’s so important; it separates us from them.’
Compassion is not a liability; it is a line in the sand. It is the core principle that prevents a person from becoming the monster they fight.
Real life’s a little bit more complicated than a slogan on a bumper sticker. Real life is messy. We all have limitations. We all make mistakes.
Judy Hopps, ‘Zootopia’ (2016)
Rather than being obsessed with perfection, integrity requires us to acknowledge our mistakes and shared limitations, and try to understand each other.
I can’t afford to hate people. I haven’t got that kind of time.
Kanji Watanabe, ‘Ikiru’ (1952)
When time is the ultimate scarce resource, the only thing worth investing in is meaningful, selfless action. There is no capacity for animosity.
Funny Integrity Quotes
When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.
Mark Twain
In a world where lies are virtually everywhere, speaking the truth is, indeed, the greatest strategy for coming out on top.
Honesty is a very expensive gift. Don’t expect it from cheap people.
Warren Buffett
A blunt, yet true assessment. Honesty requires courage and self-respect, qualities not found in those who are “cheap” in character. The question is: are we part of those people too?
Never wrestle with a pig – because you both get dirty, but only the pig loves it.
Marshall Goldsmith
Sometimes, integrity means knowing when to disengage. Don’t let a person without integrity drag you down to their level.
Integrity quotes
Final Thoughts
As you may see through the list of quotes above, integrity isn’t a final destination to arrive at, a certificate to earn, or a tropy to collect.
It is a quiet, moment-by-moment practice.
It’s the practice of listening. It’s the practice of choosing courage over comfort. And, perhaps most importantly, it’s the practice of self-compassion – of forgiving yourself when you falter and gently, without fanfare, returning to your center.
The journey of self-discovery is full of detours. We will all have moments of misalignment. But what’s important is not to be flawless – but to always begin again, to take a stand for your own conscience, and to be true to the person you are becoming.
Don’t let these words be a measure of how far you have to go. Let them be a reminder of the strength, wisdom, and wholeness you already have within you, waiting to be nurtured!
Be patient with yourself, be brave, and above all, be true.
Other resources you might be interested in:
- 72 Memento Mori Quotes: Remember You’re Mortal!
- 100 Happy Life Quotes to Warm Your Soul
- 45 Inner Peace Quotes: Wisdom for Tranquility & Harmony
- 57 Hope Quotes to Uplift Spirits & Brighten the Day
- 40 Life Coaching Quotes: Levelling Up Your Life
Let’s Tread the Path Together, Shall We?
