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Honor

abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability

Honor or honour, is an abstract concept of a perceived quality of virtues, worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or corporate body such as a family, school, regiment or nation. Accordingly, individuals (or corporate bodies) are assigned worth and stature based on the harmony of their actions with a specific code of honour, and the moral code of the society at large. In Psychological nativism it is viewed as being as real to the human condition as love, and likewise deriving from the formative personal bonds that establish one's personal dignity and character; from stances of moral relativism, it can be perceived as arising from universal concerns for material circumstance and status, rather than fundamental differences in principle between those who hold different honour codes. Samuel Johnson, defined honour as having several senses, the first of which was "nobility of soul, magnanimity, and a scorn of meanness."

It yearns me not, if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But, if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive. ~ William Shakespeare
Honor is like the eye, which cannot suffer the least impurity without damage. It is a precious stone, the price of which is lessened by a single flaw. ~ Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not honor more. ~ Richard Lovelace
Semper in fide quid senseris, non quid dixeris, cogitandum.
In honorable dealing you should consider what you intended, not what you said or thought. ~ Cicero
I have never had to look up a definition of honor. I knew instinctively what it was. It is something I had the day I was born, and I never had to question where it came from or by what right it was mine. If I was stripped of my honor, I would choose death as certainly and unemotionally as I clean my shoes in the morning. Honor is the presence of God in man. ~ Pat Conroy
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? ~ John the Evangelist
Titles of honour add not to his worth,
Who is himself an honour to his titles. ~ John Ford
Who in the moment of victory remains inaccessible to vanity and hate, who in the midst of popular enthusiasm lives in humility and prayer, who in the universal crush of ambition covets neither profit nor honours. ~ Jean Gerson
I tell you what. Let’s drink to the one thing that never changes, to the one permanent part of a man’s life...honor, indeed. Burglar proof, weather proof, fool proof, one hundred-proof! Honor. Everything else is subject to the... powers that be. To the caprices of often inferior men. But your honor is your own, inviolate. So then- to honor. ~ Taps
"Chose disgrace where obedience did not bring honour"


Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · See also · External links

A

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  • Better to die ten thousand deaths,
    Than wound my honour.
  • Content thyself to be obscurely good.
    When vice prevails and impious men bear sway,
    The post of honor is a private station.
  • “Honor” sighs softly on the wind, teasing my ears, and I want to scream at the absolute idiocy of it. I did the wrong thing for the right reasons and I'm supposed to be happy with that?
    • Bernie Arntzen, On My Honor in Assassin Fantastic (ed. Martin H. Greenberg and Alexander Potter, 2001), p. 235

B

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  • Honor is like the eye, which cannot suffer the least impurity without damage. It is a precious stone, the price of which is lessened by a single flaw.
    • Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, quoted in "The Forbes Book of Business Quotations" (1997) by Edward C. Goodman, Ted Goodman , p. 411.
  • "What is honor, and riches, and the favor of creatures - so long as I lack the favor of God, the pardon of my sins, a saving interest in Christ, and the hope of glory! O Lord, give me these, or I die! Give me these, or else I shall eternally die!"
  • Honour is like a widow, won
    With brisk attempt and putting on.
  • Now, while the honour thou hast got
    Is spick and span new.
  • If he that in the field is slain
    Be in the bed of honour lain,
    He that is beaten may be said
    To lie in Honour's truckle-bed.
    • Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part I (1663-64), Canto III, line 1,047.
  • As quick as lightning, in the breach
    Just in the place where honour's lodged,
    As wise philosophers have judged,
    Because a kick in that place more
    Hurts Honour than deep wounds before.

C

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  • True honour is an attachment to honest and beneficent principles, and a good reputation; and prompts a man to do good to others, and indeed to all men, at his own cost, pains, or peril. False honour is a pretence to this character, but does things that destroy it: And the abuse of honour is called honour, by those who from that good word borrow credit to act basely, rashly, or foolishly.
  • You are not running for reelection here. Be tough when necessary, impartial always. Guard your honor.
    • John Chapman, Muddy Boots Leadership: Real Life Stories and Personal Examples of Good, Bad, and Unexpected Results (2006), p. 93
  • Honour is a luxury for aristocrats, but it is a necessity for hall-porters.
  • Semper in fide quid senseris, non quid dixeris, cogitandum.
    • In honorable dealing you should consider what you intended, not what you said or thought.
    • Cicero, De Officiis (44 B.C.), I. 13.
  • I have never had to look up a definition of honor. I knew instinctively what it was. It is something I had the day I was born, and I never had to question where it came from or by what right it was mine. If I was stripped of my honor, I would choose death as certainly and unemotionally as I clean my shoes in the morning. Honor is the presence of God in man.

D

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  • "We have no other choice. Our submission would serve no end; if Germany is victorious, Belgium, whatever her attitude, will be annexed to the Reich. If die we must, better death with honour."
  • The honor of a nation is an important thing. It is said in the Scriptures, “What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” It may be said, also, What doth it profit a nation if it gain the whole world, but lose its honor?

E

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  • "Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."
    • Exodus 20:12, KJV.

F

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  • Titles of honour add not to his worth,
    Who is himself an honour to his titles.
    • John Ford, The Lady's Trial (licensed 3 May 1638; printed 1639), Act I, scene 3, line 30.

G

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  • Give me, kind Heaven, a private station,
    A mind serene for contemplation:
    Title and profit I resign:
    The post of honor shall be mine.
    • John Gay, Fables (1727), Part II. The Vulture, the Sparrow and other Birds.
  • Who in the moment of victory remains inaccessible to vanity and hate, who in the midst of popular enthusiasm lives in humility and prayer, who in the universal crush of ambition covets neither profit nor honours.
    • Jean Gerson, scholar, educator, reformer and poet, and Chancellor of the University of Paris. Gerson was also one of the first individuals to publicly defend Joan of Arc and proclaim her supernatural volition as authentic. This statement he made is inscribed in the Cole Gallery in Ruffner Hall at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

H

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  • Of all the resources of government, none are so wastefully employed as its powers of conferring honour. This is true of nearly all countries. In Great Britain the waste is not occasioned by profusion, but by caprice, uncertainty, irrelevance. The king (it was in George III.'s time) is asked to give a right of going through the park to some gentleman. "No, no," replies the king, "I cannot do that; but you may make him an Irish baron." The above is not an unfavourable specimen of the way in which honours have been granted.
  • "Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing."

I

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J

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  • And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
  • πῶς δύνασθε ὑμεῖς πιστεῦσαι, δόξαν παρὰ ἀλλήλων λαμβάνοντες, καὶ τὴν δόξαν τὴν παρὰ τοῦ μόνου Θεοῦ οὐ ζητεῖτε;
    • How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

L

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  • Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care of himself without that law is both. For a wounded man shall say to his assailant, "If I live, I will kill you. If I die, you are forgiven." Such is the rule of honor.
  • Before gray hair you should rise up, and you must show honor to an older man, and you must be in fear of your God. I am Jehovah.
  • "Oh Lord! How many of these you surely have spilt over the world, who suffer for the black so-called honour what they would not suffer for you!" (Lázaro) [...] "I make you know that I am, as you see, a squire; but, by God!, if Ï meet the count on the street and he does not fully take off his hat before me, next time I will know to enter a house, simulating to have some business there, or cross to another street, if there is one, before he reaches me, so that I will not take off mine. That a hidalgo does not owe anything to anybody but God and the king, nor it is proper, being a good man, to lose a comma of care in regarding himself highly." (The Squire)
  • I could not love thee, dear, so much,
    Loved I not honor more.

M

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  • "Duty, Honor, Country" — those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.
  • "Chose disgrace where obedience did not bring honour"
    • Anon. inscription on tombstone of Prussian General Johann Friedrich Adolf von der Marwitz, who received after the victory over Saxony an order by Frederick the Great to take and remove the famous library of Count Brühl to Berlin and who replied to his king: "This is unbefitting to an officer of His Majesty" and resigned his commission.
  • "… during the time that the aristocracy was dominant, the concepts honour, loyalty, etc. were dominant, during the dominance of the bourgeoisie the concepts freedom, equality, etc."

N

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  • In honour I gained them, and in honour I will die with them.
    • Horatio Nelson, Life of Nelson (ch. 9), when asked to cover the stars on his uniform to hide his rank during battle.

O

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P

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  • "Honor is what a man owns...."
    • Esteban Pallares "The Honorable Pallares", p. 1,562.
  • Yea, much more those that seem to be the more feeble members of the body, are more necessary. And such as we think to be the less honourable members of the body, about these we put more abundant honour; and those that are our uncomely parts, have more abundant comeliness. But our comely parts have no need [...]
  • Are you not ashamed that you give your attention to acquiring as much money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honor, and give no attention or thought to truth and understanding and the perfection of your soul?
  • Honour and shame from no condition rise;
    Act well your part, there all the honour lies.
  • "To die with honour, when one can no longer live with honour."

R

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  • A bon entendeur ne faut qu'un parole.

S

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That which is honourable is the only good; all other goods are alloyed and debased. ~ Seneca the Younger
  • Nec multis verbis nec circumitu longo, quod sit summum bonum, colliges1; digito, ut ita dicam, demonstrandum est nec in multa spargendum. Quid enim ad rem pertinet in particulas illud diducere, cum possis dicere: summum bonum est, quod honestum est? Et quod magis admireris: unum bonum est, quod honestum est, cetera falsa et bona sunt. Hoc si persuaseris tibi et virtutem adamaveris, amare enim parum est, quicquid illa contigerit, id tibi, qualecumque aliis videbitur, faustum felixque erit. Et torqueri, si modo iacueris ipso torquente securior, et aegrotare, si non male dixeris fortunae, si non cesseris morbo, omnia denique, quae ceteris videntur mala, et mansuescent et in bonum abibunt, si super illa eminueris.
    • To infer the nature of this Supreme Good, one does not need many words or any round-about discussion; it should be pointed out with the forefinger, so to speak, and not be dissipated into many parts. For what good is there in breaking it up into tiny bits, when you can say: the Supreme Good is that which is honourablea? Besides (and you may be still more surprised at this), that which is honourable is the only good; all other goods are alloyed and debased. If you once convince yourself of this, and if you come to love virtue devotedly (for mere loving is not enough), anything that has been touched by virtue will be fraught with blessing and prosperity for you, no matter how it shall be regarded by others. Torture, if only, as you lie suffering, you are more calm in mind than your very torturer; illness, if only you curse not Fortune and yield not to the disease—in short, all those things which others regard as ills will become manageable and will end in good, if you succeed in rising above them.
    • Seneca the Younger, Epistle LXXI. In: Seneca, Epistles, Volume II: Epistles 66-92. Translated by Richard M. Gummere. Loeb Classical Library, page 74-75. Archived from the original on October 23, 2024.


  • Well, 'tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off, when I come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no: Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honour? a word. What is that word honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. Is it insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore, I'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon; and so ends my catechism.
  • It yearns me not, if men my garments wear;
    Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
    But, if it be a sin to covet honour,
    I am the most offending soul alive.
  • Let none presume
    To wear an undeserv'd dignity.
    O, that estates, degrees and offices
    Were not deriv'd corruptly, and that clear honour
    Were purchas'd by the merit of the wearer!
  • Mine honor is my life, both grow in one. Take honor from me, and my life is done. Then, dear my liege, mine honor let me try; In that I live, and for that I will die.
  • I had rather crack my sinews, break my back,
    Than you should such dishonour undergo.
  • Honour sits smiling at the sale of truth.
  • Honours ought to come from merit, and from merit alone.
    • Lord St. Leonards, Brownlow v. Egerton (1853), 23 L. J. Rep. (N. S.) 415; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 100.

T

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  • I tell you what. Let’s drink to the one thing that never changes, to the one permanent part of a man’s life...honor, indeed. Burglar proof, weather proof, fool proof, one hundred-proof! Honor. Everything else is subject to the... powers that be. To the caprices of often inferior men. But your honor is your own, inviolate. So then- to honor.
    • Taps, 1981 film, Directed by Harold Becker. Written by Robert Mark Kamen, James Lineberger and Darryl Ponicsan, based on the novel Father Sky by Devery Freeman. Line is said by the character Brigadier General Harlan Bache, portrayed by George C. Scott.
  • A man is honorable in proportion to the personal risks he takes for his opinion.
    • Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012) Ch. 9. Fat Tony and the Fragilistas, p. 147.

U

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V

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  • "… Honour … remains awake in us like a last lamp in a temple that has been laid to waste."

W

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X

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Y

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Z

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See also

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