Quotes
Expand the sections for quotes on principles of honesty, integrity, fairness, responsibility, respect and fairness from the greatest minds of all time.
Quotes on Honesty
— Lee IacoccaI am a big believer in the ‘mirror test.’ All that matters is if you can look in the mirror and honestly tell the person you see there, that you’ve done your best.
— John McKayHonesty pays, but it doesn’t seem to pay enough to suit some people.
— F. M. Hubbard
Honesty is the first chapter in the Book of wisdom. Let it be our endeavor to merit the character of a just nation.
— Thomas Jefferson
Be Silly. Be honest. Be kind.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
— Arthur C. Clarke
I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
— George Washington
To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
— Gandhi
One word of truth outweighs the whole world.
— Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One falsehood spoils a thousand truths.
— African Proverb
Of all the animals, man is the only one that lies.
— Mark Twain
The Truth requires action.
— Mason Weaver
The elegance of honesty needs no adornment.
— Merry Browne
If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.
–Mark Twain
The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand fold.
— Aristotle
It takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen.
— Homer Simpson
One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.
— Mark Twain
Always tell the truth. If you can’t always tell the truth, don’t lie.
— Author Unknown
I am different from Washington; I have a higher, grander standard of principle. Washington could not lie. I can lie, but I won’t.
— Mark Twain
Quotes on Responsibility
— Reed KonslerIf you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.
— Abigail Van Buren“I must do something” always solves more problems than “Something must be done.”
— Author Unknown
A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master–gardener of his soul, the director of his life.
— James Allen
Responsibility’s like a string we can only see the middle of. Both ends are out of sight.
— William McFee
The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self–respect springs.
— Joan Didion
Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it’s addressed to someone else.
— Ivern Ball
The great thought, the great concern, the great anxiety of men is to restrict, as much as possible, the limits of their own responsibility.
— Giosué Borsi
We need to restore the full meaning of that old word, duty. It is the other side of rights.
— Pearl Buck
With every civil right there has to be a corresponding civil obligation.
— Edison Haines
I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.
— John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.
— Erica Jong
When you blame others, you give up your power to change.
— Author Unknown
Even when we know what is right, too often we fail to act. More often we grab greedily for the day, letting tomorrow bring what it will, putting off the unpleasant and unpopular.
— Bernard M. Baruch
The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.
— Albert Ellis
Duty is what one expects from others.
— Oscar Wilde
A new position of responsibility will usually show a man to be a far stronger creature than was supposed.
— William James
Mistakes fail in their mission of helping the person who blames them on the other fellow.
— Henry S. Haskins
Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.
— Booker T. Washington
God has entrusted me with myself.
— Epictetus
We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until… we have stopped saying “It got lost,” and say “I lost it.”
— Sidney J. Harris
It is easy to ignore responsibility when one is only an intermediate link in a chain of action.
— Stanley Milgram
When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.
— Louis Nizer
Quotes on Trustworthiness
— Cardinal De RetzFew things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.
— Booker T. WashingtonI think we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.
— Henry David Thoreau
It is an equal failing to trust everybody, and to trust nobody.
— English Proverb
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.
— William Shakespeare
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
— E.M. Forster
Our distrust is very expensive.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.
— Henry L. Stimson
Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.
— Alfred Adler
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else’s.
— Billy Wilder
Who would not rather trust and be deceived?
— Eliza Cook
You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment unless you trust enough.
— Frank Crane
Be just to all, but trust not all.
— Traditional
He who mistrusts most should be trusted least.
— Theognis
To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.
–- George MacDonald
Self–trust is the first secret of success.
-– Ralph Waldo Emerson
The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.
-– Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
-– Samuel Johnson
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
–- Thomas Jefferson
I trust everyone. I just don’t trust the devil inside them.
— Troy Kennedy-Martin
Few delights can equal the mere presence of one whom we trust utterly.
— George MacDonald
If people trust and love you, you will never walk alone.
— Philippos
Trust yourself before you can trust anyone else.
— Maly Vue
If you can’t trust yourself, then who are you going to turn to when you need advice?
— Craig Anderson
Everyone realizes that one can believe little of what people say about each other. But it is not so widely realized that even less can one trust what people say about themselves.
— Rebecca West
A person who trusts no one can’t be trusted.
–- Jerome Blattner
Quotes on Respect
— Jane HaddamSelf-respect permeates every aspect of your life.
— Joe ClarkThe bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.
— Richard Bach
To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich, to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never, in a word to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common, this is to be my symphony.
— William Henry Channing
That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.
— William J. H. Boetcker
The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.
— Emerson
Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self–respect leads to self–discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.
— Clint Eastwood
Every human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station, deserves respect. We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves.
— U Thant
Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.
— Albert Einstein
Let us forever forget that every station in life is necessarily that each deserves our respect; that not the station itself; but the worthy fulfillment of its duties does honor the man.
— Mary Lyon
Character is the foundation stone upon which one must build to win respect. Just as no worthy building can be erected on a weak foundation, so no lasting reputation worthy of respect can be built on a weak character.
— R. C. Samsel
He that cannot decidedly say, “No,” when tempted to evil, is on the highway to ruin. He loses the respect even of those who would tempt him, and becomes but the pliant tool and victim of their evil designs.
— J. Hawes
Respect a man, and he will do all the more.
–- John Wooden
If one doesn’t respect oneself one can have neither love nor respect for others.
-– Ayn Rand
It is not sufficient to be worthy of respect in order to be respected.
–- Alfred Nobel
Probably no greater honor can come to any man than the respect of his colleagues.
— Cary Grant
We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.
–- Thomas Jefferson
Men are respectable only as they respect.
-– Ralph Waldo Emerson
They cannot take away our self–respect if we do not give it to them.
-– Gandhi
Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners.
-– Laurence Sterne
If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.
-– John W. Gardner
When men and women are able to respect and accept their differences then love has a chance to blossom.
-– John Gray
I must respect the opinions of others even if I disagree with them.
–- Herbert Henry Leathem
We must build a new world, a far better world – one in which the eternal dignity of man is respected.
–- Harry S. Truman
There is no respect for others without humility in one’s self.
— Henri Frederic Amiel
Respect commands itself and it can neither be given nor withheld when it is due.
— Eldridge Cleaver
Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.
— Baltasar Gracian
Self–respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
–- Abraham Heschel
Quotes on Fairness
— AristophanesAll virtue is summed up in dealing justly.
— AristotleFair play is a jewel.
— Sir Walter Scott
The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.
— Lyndon B. Johnson
Ethics is not about the way things are, it is about the way things ought to be.
— Michael Josephson
Justice is truth in action.
— Joseph Joubert
Fair play with others is primarily the practice of not blaming them for anything that is wrong with us. We tend to rub our guilty conscience against others the way we wipe dirty fingers on a rag. This is as evil a misuse of others as the practice of exploitation.
— Eric Hoffer
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
— Abraham Lincoln
Justice does not come from the outside. It comes from inner peace.
— Barbara Hall
Justice is the constant and perpetual will to allot to every man his due.
— Domitus Ulpian
It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
— Earl Warren
Justice is a contract of expediency, entered upon to prevent men harming or being harmed.
— Epicurus
Liberty, equality – bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice; and justice to the feeble is protection and kindness.
— Henri-Frédéric Amiel
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
— Elie Wiesel
It is essential that justice be done, and it is equally vital that justice not be confused with revenge, for the two are wholly different.
–- Oscar Aria
True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of Justice.
–- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
If we do not maintain Justice, Justice will not maintain us.
— Francis Bacon
It is better that ten guilty escape than one innocent suffer.
— William Blackstone
Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.
— Edmund Burke
The law isn’t justice. It’s a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.
— Raymond Chandler
A court is a place where what was confused before becomes more unsettled than ever.
— Henry Waldorf Francis
Justice delayed is justice denied.
— William Gladstone
Justice is incidental to law and order.
— J. Edgar Hoover
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhwre. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Justice consists in doing no injury to men; decency in giving them no offense.
— Marcus Tullius Cicero De Officiis
The more laws, the less justice.
— Marcus Tullius Cicero De Officiis
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
— Mahatma Gandhi
There are only two ways of spreading light – to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
— Edith Wharton
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Quotes on Integrity
— Cecil BeatonWithout integrity, no company can have positive word of mouth
— Jay AbrahamMen of integrity, by their existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community.
— John W. Gardner
Integrity has no need of rules.
— Albert Camus
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Living a life of integrity is one of the greatest missions we can undertake.
— Greg Anderson
A righteous man who walks in his integrity. How blessed are his sons after him.
— Proverbs 20:7
The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.
— Proverbs 11:3
Integrity is what we do, what we say, and what we say we do.
-–Don Galer
We laugh at honor, and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.
— C.S. Lewis
Don’t compromise yourself. It’s all you’ve got.
— Janis Joplin
Integrity — When you do the right thing even though no one is watching.
— Anon
Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.
— Sophocles
Lose your wealth and you’ve lost nothing. Lose your health and you’ve lost something. Lose your character and you’ve lost everything.
— Ben Lapadula
Real integrity stays in place whether the test is adversity or prosperity.
— Charles Swindoll
It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.
— Mark Twain
Don’t worry so much about your self– esteem. Worry more about your character. Integrity is its own reward.
— Laura Schlessinger
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
— Henry David Thoreau
Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.
— Spencer Johnson
Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.
— Oliver Cromwell
In great matters men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small matters, as they are.
— Gamaliel Bradford
Integrity: A name is the blueprint of the thing we call character. You ask, What’s in a name? I answer, Just about everything you do.
— Morris Mandel
Integrity is not a 90 percent thing, not a 95 percent thing; either you have it or you don’t.
— Peter Scotese
Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat, then you know he never will.
— John D. MacDonald
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
— Abraham Lincoln
I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.
— Samuel Johnson