Other related topics at:
Virtue and Vice
The Whole Truth
489. Knowledge; Scruples
"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge
without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."
Johnson: Rasselas [the Astronomer]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
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558. Integrity; Marriage; Virtue
"...Marriage is the strictest tie of perpetual friendship, and
there can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence
without integrity; and that he must expect to be wretched, who
pays to beauty, riches, or politeness, that regard which only
virtue and piety can claim."
Johnson: Rambler #18 (May 19, 1750)
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1,001. Integrity; Truth
"There are indeed, in the present corruption of mankind, many
incitements to forsake truth: the need of palliating our own
faults and the convenience of imposing on the ignorance or
credulity of others so frequently occur; so many immediate evils
are to be avoided, and so many present gratifications obtained,
by craft and delusion, that very few of those who are much
entangled in life have spirit and constancy sufficient to support
them in the steady practice of open veracity."
Johnson: Rambler #96 (February 16, 1751)
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1,657. Integrity; Individuality;
Virtue
"There are occasions on which it is noble to dare to stand alone.
To be pious among infidels, to be disinterested in a time of
general venality, to lead a life of virtue and reason in the
midst of sensualists, is a proof of a mind intent on nobler
things than the praise or blame of men, of a soul fixed in the
contemplation of the highest good, and superiour to the tyranny
of custom and example."
Johnson: Adventurer #131 (February 5, 1754)
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