Alexander Pope on honor

How happy is the blameless Vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d.

To err is human, to forgive divine.

Let me tell you I am better acquainted with you for a long absence, as men are with themselves for a long affliction: absence does but hold off a friend, to make one see him the truer.

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