Individual Integrity – Sunday, May 6, 1951
We are deeply grateful for all our material blessings and for the personal freedom which is so essential to human happiness. But in all that we are or have or hope to be, there is one essential element without which all else would be as nothing, without which there can be no peace, no protection, no permanence. And this indispensable element is individual integrity. To paraphrase the old proverb, “Pride goeth before a fall,” we offer another one, less euphonious, but equally true: “Dishonor, dishonesty, and immorality go before a fall.” And one of the greatest threats to freedom and to individual enterprise is indifference to dishonor and dishonesty, both in public and private places.
We have become too familiar with crime and corruption—and too indifferent to it at times. Of course, sometimes when we suddenly see its insidiousness, with shocked sensibilities we rise in wrath for a brief time, and then too soon relax and let it “leech” upon us again.
In weighing and measuring material things, we are not satisfied with mere appearance or approximations, but we rigidly refer to fixed standards. And in matters of morals and of honor and honesty, in matters of public and private trust, there must likewise be adherence to firm, fixed standards—or we are utterly lost. Indeed, none of the things we most cherish in our way of life can survive without individual integrity. Efficiency is futile without integrity. Ability is but dross without integrity. Talent is tragic without integrity. All the products we can produce, all the men we can muster, all the forces we can put forth are unavailing unless we can trust ourselves.
It costs much more than money to uncover acts of disloyalty or dishonesty. It costs confidence. And without confidence there is no peace or protection. It isn’t only a public problem. It is a personal problem. In the words of Montaigne: “The corruption of the age is made up by the particular contribution of every individual man…”
There is no substitute for individual integrity. And without it there is no peace or safety or assurance.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, May 6, 1951, 11:00 to 11:30 a.m., Eastern Time. Copyright, 1951
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May 6, 1951
Broadcast Number 1,133