Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

And even a liar can be scared into telling the truth, same as honest man can be tortured into telling a life.

People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I've learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one's reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one's master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person's view requires to be faked.

With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide.

When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, butt in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.

Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.

When you see a good man, try to emulate his example, and when you see a bad man, search yourself for his faults.

A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others.

Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and knowledge are not infused into us from without.

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.

Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely enjoy exercising authority usually lose it.

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.