Integrity is an extremely difficult state to achieve. Money can't buy it, influence can't pedal it, and we are all born without it. We hear the word bantered about a lot, especially in political circles. But, few people today, know what the word means when applied to a person. Often the word is used to describe someone we like. But, liking someone is not the definition of integrity. It is wise to understand what this concept is; and wiser still to seek its achievement in oneself.
Integrity has been explained by many throughout the centuries. It's origin however comes from the noun "integer", or 'whole number' (as opposed to a fraction), first recorded in 1571. To be whole is to be unfractured, without fraction, or to be in a state without missing or conflicting parts. OK. That's a beginning to understanding integrity.
Let's look at some quotes on the subject.
Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it. ~David Star Jordan, The Philosophy of Despair
Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught. ~J.C. Watts
If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. ~Alan Simpson
Character is much easier kept than recovered. ~Thomas Paine
Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one. ~Chinese Proverb
Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right. ~Isaac Asimov
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
Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them. ~Aristotle
You can out-distance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you. ~Rwandan Proverb
As the quotes above indicate, the concept of integrity reaches across nations, and across civilizations, and across time in human history. All these quotes refer in one fashion or another, to the idea that one first has endeavored to learn right from wrong, that one holds in high value their own judgment of their actions as having been right, and that one's principles of right are acted upon regardless of the presence of onlookers.
But, integrity is more than even this. At the heart of Integrity lies the state of being of not being in conflict with oneself. And this is key. If one says one thing, and does another, one cannot be said to have integrity. If one has committed wrongs which one cannot forgive oneself for, one does not have integrity. A person of integrity can, and will, forgive their own past wrongs, if they acquire the knowledge that they are no longer capable of such wrong going forward.
We all are born with wants, needs, and desires. Wisdom and integrity come from learning how to refuse those which would lead to wrong action, and to fulfill those which can be, through right action. In other words, where doing the right thing will get one what one wants, needs, or desires, one will do the right thing. And where doing the wrong thing to obtain what one wants is the only path to it, a person with integrity will deny themselves. Integrity does not come freely. It is an aware, educated, and conscious choice of action in all things one permits oneself to engage in.
The two most poignant quotes which are my favorites are:
We grow with years more fragile in body, but morally stouter, and can throw off the chill of a bad conscience almost at once. ~Logan Pearsall Smith
Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world. ~George Bernard Shaw
Smith's quote points the way for those with a guilty conscience to free themselves of it, by becoming persons of integrity. Therein lies salvation for us all who, as humans, have erred and deliberately wronged ourselves or others.
Shaw's quotation points to incredible psychological insight that how we view depends very much on how we have acted in it. If we become a thief, we are aware of, and therefore, constantly fearful of, everyone else being a thief as well. We trust no one, because we know we ourselves, our not trustworthy. And if one cannot trust oneself, who can one trust?
To be wise is to know the right thing to do. To have integrity, one must do the wise thing, even when no one else may ever know one did, or didn't. Integrity is a difficult thing to achieve. But, it is worth achieving, even if the apparent cost of achieving it is high. The reward will always be higher, because the reward was never the motive; the right thing was its own motive.
(The Universe photo represents integrity on a grand scale. Courtesy of NASA Hubble images.)
the j.c. watts quote was from the movie "legand of bagger vance". shows alot about his integrity.