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December 08, 2006

Honor And Integrity

"The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them."

~Socrates, Greek Philosopher


"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
~William Shakespeare, Hamlet


"To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."

~ e e cummings, poet, artist, playwright and novelist

From the Merriam-Webster dictionary:HONOR = A keen sense of ethical conduct: Integrity. (Wouldn't do as a matter of honor).
[...]
"One's word given as a matter of performance."
(On my honor, I will be there)."

From Wikipedia:
"INTEGRITY comprises the personal inner sense of "wholeness" deriving from honesty and consistent uprightness of character."


Noah at Find Motive had this to say:
"I’ve heard the terms “It’s just business” or “Business is Business” over and over again as I’m sure many of you have as well, but I am a firm believer that honor, integrity, and a clean conscious are worth more than any business deal. Going home at the end of the day and being able to sleep well and with a unburdened conscious is invaluable to me.

At the end of your days on this earth what will you be remembered by? I hope I’ll be remembered as a person with honor and integrity. A business man who valued people more than money and advancement. Be careful who you step on to get to the top, because you’ll meet those people again on your way down."


Paul Bauer at Dreams Alive critiques the movie "The Insider" thus:
"Last night, I saw a powerful new movie called The Insider. It's about a man who risked everything to tell the truth because he knew it was the right thing to do.
If you want a refreshing lesson on why being true to our nature is important, please see this movie!

How often are you faced with the option of speaking your Truth or backing down and "being a nice person"? When you see this movie, you'll think twice about the next time that you're in a situation that requires you to do the right thing. Not the popular thing - not the easy way out, but having integrity within yourself and honoring this value.

Integrity can mean many things, but at its root, Integrity means the quality of being complete or unbroken - wholeness"


Honor and integrity are synonymous. They are not dependent upon religion or theology. They are not virtues to strive to learn in your spare time. Listen to your gut feeling; call it moral conviction or intuition or whatever has meaning for you.

When you give your promise, is it important to you to keep it? When you speak, is it important to you to be speaking truth?

3 comments:

Tisha! said...

Nice piece, enjoyed reading it!

As for your question "When you give your promise, is it important to you to keep it? When you speak, is it important to you to be speaking truth?"

I'm rather an extremist when it comes to keeping promises and telling the truth (some people wish I would stay shut) but in all seriousness I do believe that our happiness lies in being "whole" with ourselves combined with intellectual honesty.

Have a lovely weekend!
Tisha

Anonymous said...

Absolutely, Tish. Being an extremist in the honesty department sounds like a good thing. Better than the alternative, don't you think? It is so important to our wholeness to be honest with ourselves and with others; that is integrity.

Thanks, you have an awesome weekend too.

Tisha! said...

I suppose it is better than the alternative, yet it has gotten me into quite a bit of trouble as many people prefer to live a lie.

Truth acts as mirror - when you've just gotten out of bed and haven't washed your face yet uggggh LOL.

What I am trying to say is that because TRUTH hurts I am learning to take other people's feelings into consideration when I tell it to them straight.

Getting to know oneself is primordial and every day I learn a little more about myself. Some things crack me up, some make me angry and others make me happy to be me. All are part of me and must work together.

Sorry that was really long but that's you're fault! So thought-provoking!!