A brief thought on integrity

July 19, 2007

I cam across two quotes today, both of which appealed, partly for the message, but also for the neatness of the phraseology. The first is from Martin Luther King Jr., the second from Don Marquis.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you; But if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.

Of course neither are fully true, but they make their points well and have a common theme. If I loosely take spiritual power as a reference to the need for ethics and integrity in respect of our social obligations, then I can link the King quote to its companion, which suggests a lack of integrity in our willingness to be disturbed. Of course a failure of the second, could lead to the first.

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