#integrity

The best revenge is not to be like that.

Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

Hold fast to those things which seem best to you, as one appointed by God to this post.

Be content, then, with being a philosopher in all things; and if you wish also to appear so to any one, appear so to yourself, and it will be enough.

'Tell the secret.' I refuse, for this is in my power. 'But I will chain you.' What are you saying? You may chain my leg, but not my will; not even Zeus can conquer that.

If you seek truth, you will not seek by any means to gain a victory by slander; and if you find truth, you will not fear being defeated.

Let whatever appears to you to be best be to you an inviolable law.

Do you not know that a good man does nothing for the sake of appearance, but solely for the sake of doing right?

If you don't trust the people, you make them untrustworthy.

To see what is right and not do it is a lack of courage.

One must have a good memory to be able to keep the promises one makes.

To live what you think is good and not what other people think is good is the highest form of courage.

Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.

Bizarre as it may sound, there are times when it is better to be unfaithful to one's principles than to one's soul.

Do not value the applause of the crowd above the quiet verdict of reason.

I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live.

Do not let the unexamined opinions of the multitude dictate the health of your soul.

Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor, while caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul?

To prefer the preservation of the body over the integrity of the soul is to choose a gilded cage over eternal freedom.

The greatest honor you can pay to virtue is to practice it when no one is watching and no reward is promised.

The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be.

It is better to suffer an injustice than to commit one, for suffering an injustice harms only the body, but committing one ruins the soul.

He who would truly fight for justice, if he would survive even for a short time, must lead a private rather than a public life.

Neither in war nor in the courts of law ought any man to use every craft to escape death.

I think it would be better for my lyre to be out of tune, and that the multitude should disagree with me, rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.

I am not only now but always a man who obeys nothing in me except the reason that seems best to me upon reflection.

Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I will obey the god rather than you, and as long as I have breath and strength I will never cease from philosophy.

Character is that which reveals moral purpose, showing the kind of things a man chooses or avoids.