Life's Greatest Lessons by Hal Urban

Author:Hal Urban
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone
Published: 2003-12-29T16:00:00+00:00

The Meaning of Integrity

The key to being or becoming an honest person lies in understanding the meaning of integrity and its relationship to honesty. The two words are often used interchangeably, but integrity is a broader term. In regard to human nature, it means being complete. It comes from the word integral, which means “whole or undivided.” It’s defined in Merriam-Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, Ninth Edition, as “essential to completeness.” To have integrity is to be a complete person—honest and with consistently high moral standards. To live without integrity is to be an incomplete human being. Dishonesty retards both our personal and social development. It causes us to fall short of realizing our full potential for lives with inner peace, feelings of self-worth, and healthy relationships.

Schweitzer wrote that we can’t have “reverence for life” unless we develop a personal code of ethics which includes honesty and truthfulness in all our dealings with other people. He says only after we develop this kind of integrity can we “feel at home in this world” and be truly effective in it. Honesty, in Schweitzer’s view, is the most basic element in the personalities of people who have a genuine respect for life.

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