Before my August recess, I thought I’d leave readers with something more than another commentary on the day’s events. I want to leave you with something to think about, revisit and think again. I’ve been collecting quotes on integrity for some time and these are some of my favorites. So, enjoy and… think. I’ll be back after Labor Day.

“Be as you wish to seem.” – Socrates

“Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.” – Sophocles

“No man is free who is not master of himself.” – Epictetus

“This above all: 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

“All that is essential for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke

“Good words do not last long until they amount to something.” – Chief Joseph

“We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.” – Abigail Adams

“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible…” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

“One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it.” – Knute Rockne

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” – Abraham Lincoln

“I never questioned the integrity of an umpire. Their eyesight, yes.” – Leo Durocher

“The highest reward for man’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it.” – John Ruskin

“The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.” – Thomas Macaulay

“A good example is the best sermon.” – Herbert J. Taylor

“I am different from [George] Washington; I have a higher, grander standard of principle. Washington cannot lie. I can lie but I won’t. – Mark Twain

“No man is free who is not master of himself.” – Epictetus

“Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.” – Thomas Carlyle

“A task becomes a duty from the moment you suspect it to be an essential part of that integrity which alone entitles a man to assume responsibility. – Dag Hammarskjold

“If you don’t want anyone to find out, don’t do it.” – Chinese Proverb

“People of character do the right thing, not because they think it will change the world but because they refuse to be changed by the world.” – Michael Josephson

“There’s only one way to find out if a man is honest – ask him! If he says ‘Yes,’ you know he’s crooked.” – Groucho Marx

“You will never be sorry – for thinking before acting, for hearing before judging, for forgiving your enemies, for being candid and frank, for helping a fallen brother, for being honest in business, for thinking before speaking, for being loyal to your church, for standing by your principles, for stopping your ears to gossip, for bridling a slanderous tongue, for harboring only pure thoughts, for sympathizing with the afflicted, for being courteous and kind to all.” – Anonymous

“It seems to me that if God calls us to anything it’s to a life of integrity.” – Gene Robinson

“The ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are.” – Franklin Roosevelt

“It is true that integrity alone won’t make you a leader, but without integrity you will never be one.” – Zig Ziglar

“If there’s anything that’s important to a reporter, it is integrity. It is credibility.” – Mike Wallace

“I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  What I can do I should do and, with the help of God, I will do.” – Everett Hale

“I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.” – Mother Teresa

“We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount – General Omar Bradley

“Men are valued, not for what they are, but for what they seem to be.” – E.G. Bulwer-Lytton, 1840

“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

“The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.” – Confucius

“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.” – Edward R. Murrow

“Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity set the expectations for behavior; they set a standard for our work. More than just a motto, for the men and women of the FBI, Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity is a way of life.” – Robert Mueller

“Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters. – Senator Alan Simpson