Intellectual Integrity

The prime antecedent to receptiveness - intellectual integrity - again, requires more than mere assertion. As it is the most important virtue, so is it the most difficult of acquirement. Perhaps no man achieves it fully. And it is almost certain that no one comprehends its meaning or grasps its merit or sees its relationship to the releasing of one's potential until after a dogged determination to practice it in every phase of life. Intellectual Integrity Intellectual integrity, as I see it, means the accurate reflection, in word and in deed, of what a person's best judgment dictates as right. No one can rise above his best judgment. Only the quality of judgment can be im proved. There is no way to determine what is right except as one's highest judgment dictates. Even if the say-so of some other authority be accepted, it is still a person's judgment which selects the authority. It is always a case of self-determination. To act honestly, to mean what we say and to say what we mean, is to present ourselves at our best. Beyond this it is impossible to go. The advance ment of one as a student of liberty requires this high con duct. One frustrated with dissimulation, occupied with half-truths and lies, more concerned with appearances in Sl the eyes of others than with investigation and contempla tion, is in no condition to receive much more than is re ported in the daily press. Aptness cannot exist prior to integrity. In short, integrity calls for the rejection of ac tions inspired by mere fashion, popularity, expediency.