55 Integrity Quotes: Wisdom for Building Trust & Character

Inspire trust, boost leadership, and achieve lasting success with this list of integrity quotes from renowned leaders and thinkers!

Integrity is the bedrock of all successful relationships, both personal and professional. It’s about doing the right thing without the need to claim credit for it – and consistently aligning one’s actions with their values. In today’s fast-paced world, where trust is typically fragile and reputations easily tarnished, this quality has become more crucial than ever. Let us learn how to cultivate and demonstrate it with the following collection of integrity quotes, shall we?

(by Jonathan M. Pham)

Short Integrity Quotes

1. Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. – C. S. Lewis

2. Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. – Oprah Winfrey

3. Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. – Samuel Johnson

4. Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. – Thomas Jefferson

5. Be impeccable with your word. – Don Miguel Ruiz

Short integrity quotes for work

Inspirational Quotes About Integrity

6. I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. – Abraham Lincoln

7. Integrity is the essence of everything successful. – R. Buckminster Fuller

8. Integrity gives you real freedom because you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. – Zig Ziglar

9. Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy. – Brené Brown

10. In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. – Warren Buffett

Famous quotes about integrity

Character and Integrity Quotes

11. Character is much easier kept than recovered. – Thomas Paine

12. You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity. – Epicurus

13. Your true character is most accurately measured by how you treat those who can do nothing for you. – Mother Teresa

14. Integrity is not a given factor in everyone’s life. It is a result of self-discipline, inner trust, and a decision to be relentlessly honest in all situations in our lives. – John C. Maxwell

15. If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters. – Alan Simpson

Integrity character quotes

Lack of Integrity Quotes

16. A half-truth is a whole lie. – Yiddish proverb

17. In law, a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics, he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so. – Immanuel Kant

18. The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool. – Stephen King

19. People that have integrity violations should be fired, not coached. How many integrity violations does it take to ruin the reputation of your company? Just one. You don’t coach integrity violations. You fire them. – Marshall Goldsmith

20. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. – Warren Buffett

Quotes about integrity and honesty

Quotes About Integrity, Trust, Credibility and Respect

21. Integrity has no need of rules. – Albert Camus

22. Trust is built when someone is vulnerable and not taken advantage of. – Bob Vanourek

23. Without trust, words become the hollow sound of a wooden gong. – John Harold

24. Consistency is the true foundation of trust. Either keep your promises or do not make them. – Roy T. Bennett

25. The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity. – Zig Ziglar

Read more: 50 Quotes About Persuasion & Influence – Unlock Your Impact

Dignity and integrity quotes

Humble Integrity Quotes

26. Pride makes us artificial; humility makes us real. – Thomas Merton

27. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. – Rick Warren

28. The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk. – Marcus Tullius Cicero

29. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. – Theodore Roosevelt

30. All streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. Humility gives it its power. – Lao Tzu

Honesty quotes

Moral Integrity Quotes

31. The time is always right to do what is right. – Martin Luther King Jr.

32. One person of integrity can make a difference. – Elie Wiesel

33. It is now, more than ever, necessary that political leaders be outstanding for honesty, integrity and commitment to the common good. – Jorge Bergoglio (Francis)

34. A man’s ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs. – Albert Einstein

35. Goodness is about character — integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. – Dennis Prager

Quotes about ethics

Spiritual Integrity Quotes

36. Whoever walks in integrity walks securely. – Proverbs 10:9

37. Do well by doing good. – Benjamin Franklin

38. We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy. – J. K. Rowling

39. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

40. Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. – Marcus Aurelius

Read more: Spiritual Leadership – A Remedy for Today’s Workplace Woes

Quotes about integrity

Workplace Integrity Quotes

41. Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets—and can be lost in a heartbeat. – Charles T. Munger

42. Your personal brand is a promise to your clients… a promise of quality, consistency, competency, and reliability. – Jason Hartman

43. It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

44. You don’t build a business — you build people — then people build the business. – Zig Ziglar

45. Honesty and integrity are absolutely essential for success in life — all areas of life. – Zig Ziglar

Integrity quotes for work

Business Ethics Quotes

46. Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do. – Potter Stewart

47. A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business. – Henry Ford

48. If ethics are poor at the top, that behavior is copied down through the organization. – Robert Noyce

49. There really is no such thing as business ethics. There is just ethics and the challenge for people in business and every other walk in life to acknowledge and live up to basic moral principles like honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness and caring. – Michael Josephson

50. Play fair, be prepared for others to play dirty, and don’t let them drag you into the mud. – Richard Branson

Read more: 60 Business Strategy Quotes – From Planning to Profit

Integrity in the workplace quotes

Integrity in Leadership Quotes

51. Be the change you wish to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi

52. Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowchart — It is about one life influencing another. – John C. Maxwell

53. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. – John Quincy Adams

54. The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. – Dwight D. Eisenhower

55. Integrity is the most valuable and respected quality of leadership. Always keep your word. – Brian Tracy

Read more: 110 Leadership Quotes to Unlock Greatness

Ethical leadership quotes

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