Honor more important than law
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One of my favorite authors is Samuel Clemens, who was better known as Mark Twain, which in his much-loved world of river-boat travel means "safe water." Mark Twain had the ability to say those things which were oft thought, but never so well-expressed. He was especially gifted in saying in just a few words that which was both witty and wise. Some of my favorites are:
"It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."
"Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond. The cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education."
"Wrinkles should indicate where smiles have been."
"Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
"Take out your brain and jump on it. It gets all caked up."
Once while delivering a speech on honesty, Twain told the following story: "When I was a boy, I was walking along a street and happened to spy a cart full of watermelons. I was fond of watermelon, so I sneaked quietly up to the cart and snitched one. Then, I ran into a nearby alley and sank my tooth into the melon. No sooner had I done so, however, than a strange feeling came over me. Without a moment's hesitation, I made my decision. I walked back to the cart, replaced the melon — and took a ripe one!"
However, it was not what Twain said or wrote that has impressed me the most; it was the example he himself set. He was an honest and honorable person. In his late 50s, he made a couple of unwise business ventures. One was trying to publish his own books and another was an investment in an unsuccessful typesetting machine. This left him $100,000 in debt. His advisors counseled him to declare bankruptcy. This meant that if he did that the law would free him from paying his debts.
Twain, though, responded by saying, "Honor is a harder master than the law. It would be unfair to those to whom I owe the money if I did not have the honor to try to pay them back every last penny. It does take more to satisfy the requirements of honor than the requirements of the law."
So, at 60 years of age and with health far from the best, Twain set himself to the gigantic task of going on a lecture tour across the world to earn enough money to pay his debts. He traveled from city to city laboring over his speeches and delivering them many times when he didn't feel at all like doing so. Ever in the forefront of his mind was his motto:
"Honor is a harder master than the law."
After four years of grueling speaking commitments, he had earned enough to pay back every penny he owed.
Honor: What a towering word it is. There can be no better compass by which to steer our lives than with Twain's motto.
What we do is an important part of who we are, and the shadow of our behavior falls across the paths of those we meet in our lives.
We are known to others by our reputations, our sense of right and wrong and our integrity.
Laws require the least that we must do to live rightly with one another. Honor goes further and requires that we also live in a right relationship with God and his other children with the high principles that honor requires of us.
Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819-1881) has written words that entail what it is to live a life of honor and integrity. These words deserve to be memorized by us all.
God give us men. A time like this demands:
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor — men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking;
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog.
In public duty and in private thinking; For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, their large professions, and their little deeds, mingle in selfish strife, lo. Freedom weeps, wrong rules the land and waiting justice sleeps.
The Rev. Dale Turner's column appears Saturdays in The Seattle Times.