Famous Figures

The Meditations record a lifelong private effort to hold his public conduct to strict philosophical standards, regardless of the power and convenience his imperial position afforded him, which is a sustained practice of personal integrity.

More's refusal to swear the Oath of Supremacy despite knowing the personal cost, on the grounds that it violated his internal moral code, is a historical study in Integrity carried to its logical extreme.

Lincoln's public positions on slavery, shaped by private moral reasoning he documented extensively, and his willingness to hold those positions against political pressure, reflect an Integrity orientation in which internal principle drove external action.

His refusal during imprisonment to accept release in exchange for renouncing his political convictions, maintained for twenty-seven years, reflects an Integrity orientation that valued internal consistency over external freedom.

His forty-year campaign against the slave trade, pursued against sustained political opposition on the basis of personal moral conviction, is one of history's clearest examples of the Integrity value expressed through sustained political action.