The Price of Integrity
Few things have as much effect on our lives, our interactions with others, our own effect on the world, as our integrity. This virtue pervades our every action, colors us in others' eyes and is fundamental to our perspective of the world and the self. Integrity could be defined as the necessity of our ideas and actions to the greater good, but this would do the virtue little justice.

Our integrity is a culmination of our past deeds and future aspirations, defining our current character. It is a trait that cannot be 'put on' nor 'taken away'. Adopting the importance of your integrity will change every aspect of our lives, but only when we recognize the method by which we create its value. We must be willing to sacrifice everything to maintain our integrity, every personal gain, material good or individual motive for the sake and cause of our necessary role in the bigger picture. A heart cannot fail for the sake of all other organs in the body, regardless of its own weaknesses. Those weaknesses become the weaknesses of the body. We must serve our higher ideals with a non-negotiable commitment to maintain our integrity through every loss and hardship, holding our heads high and our dreams higher.

"No man can purchase his virtue too dear, for it is the only thing whose value must ever increase with the price it has cost us. Our integrity is never worth so much as when we have parted with our all to keep it."

-Charles Caleb Cotton