Individual Integrity

We are deeply grateful for all our material blessings and for the personal freedom which is so essential to human happiness. But in all that we are or have or hope to be, there is one essential element without which all else would be as nothing, without which there can be no peace, no protection, no permanence. And this indispensable element is individual integrity.

To add to the old proverb, “Pride goeth before a fall,” we offer another, less euphonious, but equally true: “Dishonor, dishonesty, and immortality go before a fall.” One of the greatest threats to freedom and to individual enterprise is indifference to dishonor and dishonesty, both in public and private places.

We have become familiar with crime and corruption⎯and at times too indifferent to it. Of course sometimes when we suddenly see its seriousness, we rise in wrath with shocked sensibilities for a brief time, and then too soon relax and let it “leech” upon us again.

In weighing and measuring material things, we are not satisfied with mere appearance or approximations, but refer to fixed standards. And in matters of morals, of honor and honesty, in matters of public and private trust, there must likewise be adherence to firm, fixed standards⎯or we are utterly lost.

None of the things we most cherish in our way of life can survive without individual integrity. Efficiency is futile without integrity. Efficiency is futile without integrity. Ability is unsafe without integrity. Talent is tragic without integrity. All the products we can produce, all the men we can muster, all the forces we can put forth are unavailing unless we can trust ourselves.

Disloyalty and dishonesty cost much more than money. They cost confidence. And without confidence there is no peace or protection. This is not only a public problem, it is a personal problem. In the words of Montaigne: “The corruption of the age is made up by the particular contribution of every individual integrity. And without it there is no peace or safety or assurance.