Counting on Character

There has long been a philosophy, too widely entertained, that a personal weakness could be offset by a legal device; for example, there have been those who have supposed that if a man weren’t fundamentally honest, you could make him honest merely by passing a law against dishonesty or that if a man weren’t moral, you could assure his morality by legislating against immorality. And this line of thinking has gone yet further⎯to the point where sometimes collateral and contracts and written commitments are presumed to replace character. But, lest we forget it, integrity of character is still an indispensable element in any transaction, regardless of what other safeguards may be insisted upon. (This isn’t true only of people individually; it is true also of organizations and institutions, and even of nations, because nations and other institutions are only people, governments and other organizations are only men⎯and agreements are often not worth much more than the integrity of those who are responsible for them.) He who has the word of a man of honor has something to count on, but he who has only a written document may have only a written document, because history, both past and current, has proved that there is no security that cannot be sabotaged, no strong box that cannot be broken, no treaty or trust that cannot be violated, no oath that cannot be dishonored, unless behind all these things there are men of high principle. The only relationships in this world that have ever been really worthwhile and enduring, have been those in which one man could trust another⎯in which men could trust men. And perhaps one of these days, if we haven’t done so already, we shall begin to count more on character and less on collateral, more on individual responsibility and less on legislation, more on simple justice, and less on litigation, more on principle and less on expediency  ⎯because there isn’t any security or any safe and sure future for anyone except on the basis of personal integrity and individual responsibility. If you can’t count on character, you can’t count on anything⎯for long.