Collection of quotes on integrity

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.  —  Albert Einstein

Goodness is about character — integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people. — Dennis Prager

In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And, if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you. – Warren Buffett

If you believe in unlimited quality and act in all your business dealings with total integrity, the rest will take care of itself – Frank Perdue

Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, and treating people with respect. – Stephen Covey

Integrity is the most valuable and respected quality of leadership. Always keep your word. — Brian Tracy

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.V Dwight D. Eisenhower

It is true that integrity alone won't make you a leader, but without integrity, you will never be one.  —- Zig Ziglar

Power really is a test of character. In the hands of a person of integrity, it is of tremendous benefit; in the hands of a tyrant, it causes terrible destruction.  —  John Maxwell

Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they always keep. – Denis Waitley

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out. -Thomas Babington Macaulay

Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught.  — J.C. Watts

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.  — Douglas Adams

Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will.  —  John D. MacDonald

Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy; and choosing to practice our values rather than simply professing them.  — Brene Brown

Honor your commitments with integrity  —  Les Brown

My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there.  —  Indira Gandhi

I’ve learned many things in my life. What never fails is integrity, consistency, and loyalty. — Bahiyah Shabazz

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. — Mark Twain

Wisdom is knowing the right path to take. Integrity is taking it. - Anonymous

Undiagnosed malpractice

A conflation of events prompted me to write this blog today, though it's not among my standard topics..

I'm in the middle of the Heath brothers' book Decisive. On pp. 104-107, they bring up the problem of a doctor who doesn't really listen to his patient but quickly diagnoses probably causes for what afflicts him. In one case, the patient was even put through a battery of tests, as well as a regimen of medications, for what he had identified as dizziness. It took a visit with a doctor who not just asks the right questions but notes the patient's answer to realize that he meant a kind of mental or emotional confusion due to feeling lost after his wife's death rather than physical ailment.

Unfortunately, such misdiagnosis is fairly common. Doctors are very likely to chalk up complaints to what they've learned is the major cause.

 In the case described in the book, this led to unnecessary tests and useless treatments, which are a drain on resources and physically taxing. But in other cases, doctors claim nothing is really wrong with the patient. One of my online connections shared this clip from the Golden Girls series today:

I think I may have seen it before, but it particularly resonated with me today in light of the book's revelation  and with my own experience of real harm caused by misplaced confidence in a doctor's diagnosis.  In Dorothy's case, she wants the doctor to know that his dismissal of her signs of illness as the standard effects of aging caused her great emotional pain. Even without finding a cure for her condition, knowing that  she wasn't simply losing her energy as a result of growing older was a comfort to her.

This really hits home for me now because a year ago, my mother had the same problem. At the age of 87 she underwent hernia surgery because she was told that would rectify her condition that was causing her pain. The surgeon didn't use the techniques for operations today in which incisions are minimized but cut her straight down the abdomen with a single, very long cut. He considered the surgery a great success and told her he wrote it up for a journal. But she continued to be in pain that just grew worse, and she revisited the hospital a few times after the surgery.

Each time she spoke with her surgeon, he dismissed her complaints, saying recovery takes a while and suggesting she speak with a psychologist about her feelings. He said it so confidently that one of my siblings who accompanied her on her visits believed it absolutely. That belief persisted even when she got the diagnosis of the real cause of her persistent pain - pancreatic cancer.

It took a while to get that diagnosis, and at that point it was quite advanced and not at all treatable  (though some in the family remained in denial all the way until the just three days before her death). Given her age and condition, it is unlikely that her life could have been prolonged even with an earlier correct diagnosis, but that's not the full problem that results from I call undiagnosed malpractice. 

The problem is that people who are in real pain cannot get the relief they need -- both in terms of medications that could alleviate the physical effects and in terms of the psychological relief of being understood rather than dismissed.

The refusal to see what the real cause was also caused problems in the family, as some member insisted on clinging to the belief that the cancer could be overcome when it could not. And that brings me to another form of malpractice from doctors. 

In their insistence on clinging to false hope, some members kept shopping around for those who would tell them what they wanted to hear. My mother was pulled out of the hospital that had diagnosed her correctly because they had brought up the possibility of hospice for palliative care.

The next hospital's doctors also could offer no hope because they were honest. So when my mother was in the facility for rehab, she got taken out to meet with another doctor who made it a point of policy to always extend hope, even offering some form of chemo with the idea that it could have the placebo effect even when it could not possibly cure the condition. 

This was a complete disaster because even he could not admit her to treatment but would not say so outright, claiming that she just had to get her strength up and want it. That was absolute poppycock that was insulting to the patient as well as her family.

Of course, she was growing weaker each day and being in a facility in which there was no great expertise on the kind of pain management she needed and where medicines and food were continually administered orally resulted in her being unable to sleep, in constant pain or nauseous and delirious, and, ultimately, contracting pneumonia. She returned to the hospital that could not do much for her and recommended she be moved to a hospice. 

She moved there on a Friday and only lived until Sunday and was barely conscious during that time. Had the doctor not offered false hope, she could have entered palliative care sooner, enjoying a more pain-free last few weeks with family that would not have been as restricted from visiting as they were at the hospital.