Baltasar Gracián on honor

It is better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterward.

True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island… to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.

Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.

It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.

Mark Twain1835–1910

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882The Conduct of Life (1860), Worship

If I lose mine honour, I lose myself.

William Shakespeare1564–1616Antony and Cleopatra (1600s), Act III, scene 4, line 22.In context