Quotes on Integrity and Character

"Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody is going to know whether you did it or not.”

-Oprah Winfrey

"If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.”

-Maya Angelou

"What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches."

-Karl Menninger

"Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it.  But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy."

-Dean Koontz

"I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility."

-John Ruskin

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."

-Carl Jung

"Patience with others is Love; Patience with self is Hope; Patience with God is Faith."

-Adel Bestauras

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

-Dr. Suess

"Words that do not match deeds are not important."

-Che Guevara

"The ones you remember most are those who inspire you.  You might not always remember their faces, but you'll always remember their words."

-Danielle Fitzpatrick

"What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?"

-Matthew 16:26

"Our background and circumstances may influence who we are, but we are responsible for who we become."

-Unknown

"It is by not always thinking of yourself, if you can manage it, that you might somehow be happy.  Until you make room in your life for someone as important to you as yourself, you will always be searching and lost."

-Richard Bach

"I would rather lose in a cause that will someday win, than win in a cause that will someday lose."

-Woodrow Wilson

"You teach a little by what you say. You teach the most by what you are."

-Dr. Henrietta Mears

"The person who upsets you the most is your best teacher, because they bring you face to face with who you are."

-Lynn Andrews

"The price of greatness is responsibility."

-Winston Churchill

"Humility does not mean you think less of yourself. It means you think of yourself less."

- Ken Blanchard

"You wouldn't worry so much about what people really thought of you if you knew just how seldom they do."

- Unknown

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out."

- Jim Rohn

"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars--and yet, they pass by themselves without wondering."

- St. Augustine

"I have never had a policy; I have simply tried to do what seemed best each day as each day came."

- Abraham Lincoln

"I hope that my achievements in life shall be these-that I will have fought for what was right and fair, that I will have risked for that which mattered, and that I will have given help to those who were in need that I will have left the earth a better place for what I've done and who I've been."

-C. Hoppe

"...when you have a sense of your own identity and a vision of where you want to go in your life, then you have the basis for reaching out to the world and going after your dreams for a better life."

-Stedman Graham

"The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end--you don't come to an achievement, you don't come to a conclusion. It is an endless river."

- J. Krishnamurti

"To act the part of a true friend requires more conscientious feeling than to fill with credit and complacency any other station or capacity in social life."

- Sarah Ellis, British Missionary (1812-1872)

"When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you."

- Lao-Tzu

"The stories of past courage can offer hope and provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this, each man must look into his own soul."

- John F. Kennedy

"Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in."

- Alan Alda

"Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you - all of the expectations, all of the beliefs - and becoming who you are."

- Rachel Naomi Remen

"People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Unknown

"At the end of life, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by "I was hungry and you gave me to eat"--"I was naked and you clothed me"--"I was homeless and you took me in." Hungry not only for bread, but hungry for love. Naked not only for clothing, but naked for human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks, but homeless because of rejection."

- Mother Teresa

"When you judge others, you do not define them. You define yourself."

-Earl Nightingale

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."

-Ann Landers

"You can learn more about a person by what he says about others than by what others say about him."

- Unknown

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but noone thinks of changing himself."

-Leo Tolsty

"There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self."

-Hindu Proverb

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong -- because someday in your life you will have been all of these."

- George Washington Carver

"When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up, we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability."

- Madeleine L'Engle

"It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help."

- Judith S. Martin

"To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind."

- William Hazlitt

"It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for something you are not."

- Andre Gide

"Never ruin an apology with an excuse."

Kimberly Johnson

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

- William Morrow

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."

Albert Einstein

"Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time."

- Marion Wright Edelman

"If there be any truer measure of a man than by what he does, it must be by what he gives."

- Robert South

"When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost."

-Billy Graham

"When I think of those who have influenced my life the most, I think not of the great but of the good."

- John Knox

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