“Honour, the very soul of self-respect, is as impossible of purchase as a solar eclipse. When one blindly believes he has bought the honour of another to do that which both realize as evil, both have been cheated. The honour was dead before it passed to the purchaser, and dead honour is dishonour. Money has killed a virtue, it could not buy it. When honour could seriously consider permitting itself to be bought, the insidious poison of desecration that killed it was already coursing through its veins.” ~ William George Jordan
Dishonorable actions tear away at the fabric of self-respect as a beaver gnaws its way through a tree. Bit by bit the integrity of the structure is compromised until it fails under its own weight.
It’s easy to rationalize dishonorable actions using one of the many variations on the logic that goes something like “Well, he cut the line but now he is ahead”, but no matter how appealing that argument may be in the heat of the moment, you can never become a greater person by sacrificing your honor, integrity or self-respect.
Honor is everything, in the sense that it nourishes the connection between your mind and heart and the real you inside. There are a great many people around about whom it could be said “nice house, but nobody home” and if you’ve ever wondered what causes that tragic slide from truly living to simply existing, it is the compromise of honor.
More often than not the erosion occurs over time. Beware!
Gregory Hake 
Honor is something that is built. It is an organic thing, and like a plant it needs time and nurturing to establish deep roots. Just because you do one honorable thing does not make you an honorable person, honor should be one of our central virtues. Honor is the opposite of the phrase “the ends justify the means”, because honor requires that you take the means into account as well.
Just like self-respect, honor is something that you have to make for yourself. It cannot be given to you, and you are the only one that can take it away. Words do not matter to honor, only deeds.
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The nobody’s home really describes the shell that people become when they lose their honor. You can lose it far quicker than you can build it. Great post, thanks.
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Thanks for bringing William George Jordan back. I enjoy his excerpts as a platform for your posts.
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nicely put!
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A great meditation to post, particularly while many are open to a little meditation with the new year. It is an exercise program worth assuming diligently!
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This is such a fundamental aspect of character and an important lesson to teach our children. Every decision we make to not honor integrity adds up and eats away at the foundation of oneself. Likewise, every decision we make that is based in integrity builds the strength of who we are. A life built on integrity is one of the most precious assets imaginable.
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Honor and integrity cannot be separated, because all functional integrity depends upon the maintenance of honor. Where honor fails, integirty is lost, and things literally dis-integrate. Sometimes there is a little residual adhesion, but the appearance of integrated function in a dishonorable state is just that- an appearance. IF we recognize this we won’t be surprised so often, perhaps, when things that looked very sound suddenly lose their coherencey!
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