107 Integrity Quotes

In a world that often tests our moral compass, integrity stands as a timeless pillar of character and virtue. It's the quiet strength that guides us to do what's right, even when no one is watching. To inspire and remind us of the value of honesty and ethical behavior, we've compiled a list of the top 107 integrity quotes. Whether you're seeking a boost in your personal life or looking to build a culture of integrity within your organization, these quotes are a testament to the enduring power of staying true to one's principles. Dive in and let these words of wisdom reignite your commitment to living with integrity.

1. “If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.” - Gordon A. Eadie

2. “Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory.” - J.K. Rowling

3. “At every moment you choose yourself. But do you choose *your* self? Body and soul contain a thousand possibilities out of which you can build many I's. But in one of them is there a congruence of the elector and the elected. Only one--which you will never find until you have excluded all those superficial and fleeting possibilities of being and doing with which you toy, out of curiosity or wonder or greed, and which hinder you from casting anchor in the experience of the mystery of life, and the consciousness of the talent entrusted to you which is your *I*.” - Dag Hammarskjöld

4. “Beneath the hush a whisper from long ago, promising peace of mind and a burden shared.No peace which is not peace for all, no rest until all has been fulfilled.” - Dag Hammarskjöld

5. “It is not the repeated mistakes, the long succession of petty betrayals--though, God knows, they would give cause enough for anxiety and self-contempt--but the huge elementary mistake, the betrayal of that within me which is greater than I--in complacent adjustment to alien demands.” - Dag Hammarskjöld

6. “Living with integrity means: Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships. Asking for what you want and need from others. Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension. Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values. Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe.” - Barbara de Angelis

7. “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” - William James

8. “My mother said I broke her heart...but it was my integrity that was important. Is that so selfish? It sells for so little, but it's all we have left in this place. It is the very last inch of us...but within that inch we are free.” - Alan Moore

9. “The thought manifests the word;The word manifests the deed;The deed develops into habit;And habit hardens into character;So watch the thought and its ways with care,And let them spring forth from loveBorn out of compassion for all beings.As the shadow follows the body, as we think, so we become.” - Dhammapada

10. “I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.” - Lillian Hellman

11. “Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” - Spencer Johnson

12. “If you don't know where you are going,you'll end up someplace else.” - Yogi Berra

13. “You are so afraid of losing your moral sense that you are not willing to take it through anything more dangerous than a mud-puddle. ” - Gertrude Stein

14. “Because he had nothing to hide, he did perhaps appear to have forfeited a little of his strength. But that is the irony of honesty.” - Patrick White

15. “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

16. “Our deeds still travel with us from afar/And what we have been makes us what we are.” - George Eliot

17. “Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.” - George Eliot

18. “Be faithful to that which exists within yourself.” - Andre Gide

19. “If you promise the moon, be able to deliver it.” - Byrd Baggett

20. “and half of learning to play is learning what not to playand she's learning the spaces she leaves have their own things to sayand she's trying to sing just enough so that the air around her movesand make music like mercy that gives what it is and has nothing to proveshe crawls out on a limb and begins to build her homeand it's enough just to look around and to know that she's not aloneup up up up up up up points the spire of the steeplebut god's work isn't done by godit's done by people” - Ani DiFranco

21. “You know yourself what you are worth in your own eyes; and at what price you will sell yourself. For men sell themselves at various prices. This is why, when Florus was deliberating whether he should appear at Nero's shows, taking part in the performance himself, Agrippinus replied, 'Appear by all means.' And when Florus inquired, 'But why do not you appear?' he answered, 'Because I do not even consider the question.' For the man who has once stooped to consider such questions, and to reckon up the value of external things, is not far from forgetting what manner of man he is.” - Epictetus

22. “Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it’s true. If you hire somebody without [integrity], you really want them to be dumb and lazy.” - Warren Buffett

23. “I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” - Frederick Douglass

24. “We should not allow our personal values to erode, even if others think we are peculiar.” - James E. Faust

25. “We can't take any credit for our talents. It's how we use them that counts.” - Madeleine L'Engle

26. “Anyone who says he knows God's intention is showing a lot of very human ego.” - Michael Crichton

27. “There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.” - Samuel Johnson

28. “Justification for infidelity and dishonesty in all their manifestations lies in the marginal cost economics of “just this once.” - Clayton M. Christensen

29. “Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea.” - Ayn Rand

30. “There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity” - Tom Peters

31. “Do not make loose promises. But, when you make a promise, keep it. Be true to yourself. Be dependable. Whatever you have to do, do it the very best you can. It is not the fuss and feathers that count; it is the hard, steady effort that makes the grade.--SP 64 (SP is Studies in Priesthood, European Mission, 1930)” - John A. Widtsoe

32. “Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving.” - James E. Faust

33. “I've heard it said of faith that first we jump, and then we grow wings. Integrity is like that too, I think. That's what you have to gain. The sacrifice turns into a gift that is priceless.” - Matt Baldwin

34. “If you do politics the right way, I believe, you can actually make people's lives better. And integrity is the minimum ante to get into the game.” - Joe Biden

35. “Let it be considered that what is more wholesome than any particular belief is integrity of belief; and that to avoid looking into the support of any belief from a fear that it may turn out rotten is quite as immoral as it is disadvantageous.” - Charles Sanders Peirce

36. “Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity.” - Michel de Montaigne

37. “The truly scary thing about undiscovered lies is that they have a greater capacity to diminish us than exposed ones.” - Cheryl Hughes

38. “When people cheat in any arena, they diminish themselves-they threaten their own self-esteem and their relationships with others by undermining the trust they have in their ability to succeed and in their ability to be true.” - Cheryl Hughes

39. “Thousands of years ago the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burnt at the stake he'd taught his brothers to light, but he left them a gift they had not conceived and he lifted darkness from the face of the Earth.” - Ayn Rand

40. “I will not deny but that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.” - John Milton

41. “Truth at last cannot be hidden. Dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is to no purpose before so great a judge. Falsehood puts on a mask. Nothing is hidden under the sun.” - Leonardo da Vinci

42. “Royse Bergon: "I've seen your integrity in action. It...widened my world. I'd been raised by my father, who is a prudent, cautious man, always looking for men's hidden, selfish motivations. No one can cheat him. But I've seen him cheat himself. If you understand what I mean."Caz: "Yes."R.B.: "It was very foolish of you to attack that vile Roknari galley-man."Caz: "Yes."R.B.: "And yet, I think, given the same circumstances you would do it again."Caz: "Knowing what I know now...it would be harder. But I would hope... I would pray, Royse, that the gods would still lend me such foolishness in my need."R.B: "What is this astonishing foolishness, that shines brighter than all my father's gold? Can you teach me to be such a fool, too, Caz?"Caz: "Oh," "I'm sure of it.” - Lois McMaster Bujold

43. “How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.” - Marcus Aurelius

44. “A quiet conscience makes one strong!” - Anne Frank

45. “The armour of falsehood is subtly wrought out of darkness, and hides a man not only from others, but from his own soul.” - E.M. Forster

46. “In the end you should always do the right thing even if it's hard.” - Nicholas Sparks

47. “Sambit Bal may be right that this is a scandal the IPL needed. It certainly brings fans face-to-face with the tangled reality of their amusement, based as it is on a self-seeking, self-perpetuating commercial oligarchy issued licenses to exploit cricket as they please. Whether the fans care is another matter: one of the reasons Indians have embraced economic liberalisation so fervently is a shoulder-shrugging resignation about the efficiency and integrity of their institutions. Given the choice between Lalit Modi, with his snappy suits and his soi-disant 'Indian People's League', and the BCCI, stuffed with grandstanding politicians and crony capitalists, where would your loyalties lie?” - Gideon Haigh

48. “Rise early and seize each day, learn much and use this knowledge well, spend time with those you love, never abuse your pets, use logic to fight the irrational (for it is everywhere), defend the environment and its wildlife as a knight would protect King Arthur, meld mind and heart for greatest creativity, follow your dreams, and become all that you can be.” - Charles Kohlhase

49. “Never offer advice just to appear concerned.” - Jack Gardner

50. “Your feelings wouldn't get hurt if you were honest with yourself” - Tye Lewis

51. “Cavenaugh rubbed his hands together and smiled his sunny smile.'I like that idea. It's reassuring. If we can have no secrets, it means we can't, after all, go so far afield as we might,' he hesitated, 'yes, as we might.'Eastman looked at him sourly. 'Cavenaugh, when you've practiced law in New York for twelve years, you find that people can't go far in any direction, except-' He thrust his forefinger sharply at the floor.'Even in that direction, few people can do anything out of the ordinary. Our range is limited. Skip a few baths, and we become personally objectionable. The slightest carelessness can rot a man's integrity or give him ptomaine poisoning. We keep up only be incessant cleansing operations, of mind and body. What we call character, is held together by all sorts of tacks and strings and glue. ("Consequences")” - Willa Cather

52. “I know that what you call 'God' really exists, but not in the form you think; God is primal cosmic energy, the love in your body, your integrity, and your perception of the nature in you and outside of you.” - Wilhelm Reich

53. “The only ethical principle which has made science possible is that the truth shall be told all the time. If we do not penalize false statements made in error, we open up the way for false statements by intention. And a false statement of fact, made deliberately, is the most serious crime a scientist can commit.” - Dorothy L. Sayers

54. “If it ever occurs to people to value the honour of the mind equally with the honour of the body, we shall get a social revolution of a quite unparalleled sort.” - Dorothy L. Sayers

55. “...Regardless, I still do not believe that your duty is to do as the people wish. Your duty is to lead as best you can, following the dictates of your conscience. You must be true. Your Majesty, to the man you wish to become....” - Brandon Sanderson

56. “Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of -- for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” - Socrates

57. “Dogs have more love than integrity. They've been true to us, yes, but they haven't been true to themselves.” - Clarence Day

58. “May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.” - Rainer Maria Rilke

59. “The decent, strong person had to do decent, strong things like love unlovable people and keep peace even when it wasn't easy.” - Mary Connealy

60. “If not us, then who?If not now, then when?” - John Lewis

61. “She taught me I should never do anything in private I did not want talked about in public, and cautioned me not to talk in my sleep.” - Patrick Rothfuss

62. “Courage becomes a worthwhile and meaningful virtue when it is regarded not so much as a willingness to die manfully but as a determination to live decently.” - Thomas S. Monson

63. “You know what guys do? They stand up for people.” - David Lubar

64. “The distance between your knowledge of truth and your obedience is called lack of integrity. And the amount of negative behavior--or lack of integrity--a person exhibits is directly proportional to their amount of pain." - Tara Leigh's therapist (p.118)” - Tara Leigh Cobble

65. “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 Jr.

66. “However much we obfuscate or ignore it, we know that the factory farm is inhumane in the deepest sense of the word. And we know that there is something that matters in a deep way about the lives we create for the living beings most within our power. Our response to the factory farm is ultimately a test of how we respond to the powerless, to the most distant, to the voiceless--it is a test of how we act when no one is forcing us to act one way or another.” - Jonathan Safran Foer

67. “Your words will either give you joy or give you sorrow, but if they were spoken without regret, they give you peace.” - Shannon Alder

68. “Allow yourself to think only those thoughts that match your principles and can bear the bright light of day. Day by day, your choices, your thoughts, your actions fashion the person you become. Your integrity determines your destiny.” - Heraclitus

69. “I received your letter of June 10th. I have never talked to a Jesuit priest in my life and I am astonished by the audacity to tell such lies about me. From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.” - Albert Einstein

70. “When all is said and done all anyone has left is their integrity at their core... Don't give that away too.” - Solange nicole

71. “To make a deliberate falsification for personal gain is the last, worst depth to which either scholar or artist can descend in work or life.(Letter to Muriel St. Clare Byrne, 8 September 1935)” - Dorothy L. Sayers

72. “The one thing which seems to me quite impossible is to take into consideration the kind of book one is expected to write; surely one can only write the book that is there to be written.(Letter to Muriel St. Clare Byrne, 8 September 1935)” - Dorothy L. Sayers

73. “Atticus, you must be wrong." "How's that?" "Well, most folks seem to think they're right and you're wrong. . ." "They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions," said Atticus, "but 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

74. “One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.” - Shannon L. Alder

75. “When you stop living your life based on what others think of you real life begins. At that moment, you will finally see the door of self acceptance opened.” - Shannon L. Alder

76. “No: I shall not marry Samuel Fawthrop Wynne.""I ask why? I must have a reason. In all respects he is more than worthy of you."She stood on the hearth; she was pale as the white marble slab and cornice behind her; her eyes flashed large, dilated, unsmiling."And I ask in what sense that young man is worthy of me?” - Charlotte Brontë

77. “There are certain phrases potent to make my blood boil -- improper influence! What old woman's cackle is that?""Are you a young lady?""I am a thousand times better: I am an honest woman, and as such I will be treated.” - Charlotte Brontë

78. “[A]s though mindful of the wife of Lot, who looked back from behind him, thou deliveredst me first to the sacred garments and monastic profession before thou gavest thyself to God. And for that in this one thing thou shouldst have had little trust in me I vehemently grieved and was ashamed. For I (God [knows]) would without hesitation precede or follow thee to the Vulcanian fires according to thy word. For not with me was my heart, but with thee. But now, more than ever, if it be not with thee, it is nowhere. For without thee it cannot anywhere exist.” - Héloïse

79. “There are things we don't do. From this moment forth, let us all ensure our every action reflects well on us and our ancestors. Let us live to the highest standards, lest we win this war only to find ourselves staring in the mirror at the face of our late enemy.” - Jack Campbell

80. “Dav­el­lon may be a vil­lage, but the Dav­el­lon House can be any­thing you make it. No­bil­ity has to start some­where. It might as well start with you. Let no­body look down on you, for what­ever rea­son, My Lord. Ti­tles are granted or in­her­ited, no­bil­ity isn't.~Tenaxos I to Landar Parmingh, Baron Davellon” - Andrew Ashling

81. “A few people of integrity can go a long way.” - Bill Kauth

82. “Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.” - Patrick Rothfuss

83. “Would to God we were all Christians who profess to be Christians, and that we lived up to what we profess. Then would the Christian shine forth “clear as the sun, fair as the moon,” and what besides—why, “amazing as an army withbanners”! A consistent Church is an amazing Church—an honest, upright Church would shake the world! The tramp ofgodly men is the tramp of heroes; these are the thundering legions that sweep everything before them. The men that arewhat they profess to be, hate the semblance of a lie—whatever shape it wears—and would sooner die than do that which is dishonest, or that which would be degrading to the glory of a Heaven-born race, and to the honor of Him by whose name they have been called! O Christians! You will be the world’s contempt; you will be their despising, and hissing unless you live for one objective!” - Charles H. Spurgeon

84. “God grant, if we must have two eyes, that they may be both clear ones, one the eye of faith wholly fixed on Christ, the other the eye of obedience equally and wholly fixed on the same objective!” - Charles H. Spurgeon

85. “What do you think dignity's all about?'The directness of the inquiry did, I admit, take me rather by surprise. 'It's rather a hard thing to explain in a few words, sir,' I said. 'But I suspect it comes down to not removing one's clothing in public.” - Kazuo Ishiguro

86. “Do," said Louisa finally, "whatever you can't not do.” - David Mitchell

87. “A wise woman knows when to stay silent. However, a wiser woman of faith knows that sometimes words can win the battle, when all odds stand against her.” - Shannon L. Alder

88. “Your integrity is sacrosanct. It is who you are. Never let anyone step on your integrity - that's absolutely where you must stand solid.” - Ret. Gen. Peter Pace

89. “After character becomes imbued with conscious principles of love, integrity, and faith, it opens the door for purity and holiness to converge at the portals of the soul like sentinels guarding against any counter attacks from the ego.” - Gary Gordon

90. “...Helen sipped peppermint schnapps and considered the world made of her design. My religion is keeping peace, she thought. It hadn't begun that way, was nothing she'd planned, but now she saw that's how it was. I just ran a grocery, she thought. I don't want this. I ain't the one to make the world right.” - Alan Heathcock

91. “Reading enables me to maintain a sense of something substantive– my ethical integrity, my intellectual integrity.” - Jonathan Franzen

92. “Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness, just as honesty is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake existence.” - Ayn Rand

93. “But pecuniary interest is clearly not in your nature. How quaint. I have written about people who don't care for money, but I never expected to meet one. Therefor I conclude that the difficulty concerns integrity. People whose lives are not balanced by a healthy love of money suffer from an appauling obsession with personal integrity." - Vida Winter” - Diane Setterfield

94. “Your private self must become the same as your public self.” - John Kuypers

95. “There have been times when I could have succumbed to some form of bribe, or could have had my way by offering one. But ever since that night in Dover prison I have never been tempted to break my vow.. My Parents always drummed into me that all you have life is your reputation: you may be very rich, but if you lose your good name you'll never be happy.” - Richard Branson

96. “We must hide our integrity, like we hide our love.” - UR Ananthamurthy

97. “So remember those who win the gameLose the love they sought to gainIn debitures of quality and dubious integrityTheir small-town eyes will gape at youIn dull surprise when payment dueExceeds accounts received at seventeen” - janis ian

98. “I quit eating meat in 1976, the same year I turned fifteen, came out, and went to my first gay rights rally (not in that order). When I say that I 'came out,' I mean that I resolved to never lie about my love for women, never deliberately pass for straight, and never deny a lover by calling her 'him.' To do so, I felt, would be to betray not only the women I desired, but my deepest self.My decision to quit meat was equally simple. Somehow, through the confluence of midseventies influences, I knew that vegetarianism was a particularly healthy way to eat. One day, quite suddenly, I realized: If I didn't need to eat meat to stay alive, then eating meat was killing for pleasure. I couldn't live with myself, wouldn't be the nonviolent person I believed myself to be, if I killed other beings--beings who had their own desires--merely to satisfy my desire for the taste of their flesh.Looking back, I see that both decisions, coming out and quitting meat, are about the interplay of desire and integrity. Sometimes integrity means being true to your desires, and sometimes integrity requires you to refuse your desires. I also notice that both decisions were about bodies and consent. A primary tenet of gay liberation is that what consenting people do with each other's bodies is nobody else's business. And, of course, eating meat is something you do to somebody else's body without their consent.” - pattrice jones

99. “The man of integrity who is true to self and to God will choose the right whether or not anyone is looking because he is self-driven, not externally controlled.” - Tad R. Callister

100. “When you wake up each morning with a burning passion to accomplish a goal, you've already won the day.” - George Alexiou

101. “Nothing that happens to you was meant to be. The only thing about you that was meant to be is you. Blaze your own trail.” - George Alexiou

102. “The relationship you take for granted is the one that needs the greatest work.” - George Alexiou

103. “Kindness is a currency that can cover a multitude of interpersonal debts.” - George Alexiou

104. “Happiness has no time limits or conditions; the only requirement is to give it away.” - George Alexiou

105. “Choosing with integrity means finding ways to speak up that honor your reality, the reality of others, and your willingness to meet in the center of that large field. It’s hard sometimes.” - Terry Tempest Williams

106. “Art gives its vision to beauty not always recognized. And it surrenders freely -- whatever power it possesses to every sincere soul that seeks it. But above all else--it presents us with the gift of ourselves.” - Aberjhani

107. “Love – Acceptance – Unity – Peace –Integrity – Respect… a strong, pure creed is short on words and long on nourishing ideas. For me, the longer the creed the more it has been diluted, manipulated, and spoiled. The results of this creed poisoning can be seen in the behavior of its followers. We have all heard the expression, “The devil is in the details”; my observations have led me to suspect this is true.” - Steve Maraboli