What is Integrity?

"If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. " ~Alan Simpson

Integrity has a lot of different definitions. Oftentimes, the word is inserted where any virtue is found, simply because it seems to encompass them all! However, integrity has a definition and a very unique meaning. Here are some of the ways that integrity has been described:

"Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people." - Spencer Johnson

"Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity." - W. Clement Stone

"Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching." - Author Unknown

"Integrity is what we do, what we say, and what we say we do." - Don Galer

"One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal never to be compromised." -Chinua Achebe

Who are you? What do you stand for? What do you believe? If you don't know, find out. To have integrity is to know what you believe, who you are, and to root yourself in it. Integrity conforms itself to fit no one. Integrity is honest at all times, and does not conceal itself. Integrity is consistent.

"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 there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will." - John D. MacDonald