Honor is defined as esteem paid to worth and is associated with reverence, dignity, distinction, reputation, good name, and a good sense of what is right, just, and true. The key part to honor is having respect for others, and for yourself, the two must act together because, without both of you, nothing is going to work. I strongly believe that reputation is hard to gain and easy to lose. Some speaker once said, “Every day thousands of planes fly somewhere, and there is never any news or headlines about a successful landing, however when one crashes it is all over the news.” This fact reminds me of honor and that you must maintain honor because its infraction will result in the forfeiture of honor.
‘Honor is like a rugged island without a shore. Once you have left it, you cannot return.’ Honor is something that is never obtained and sustained easily. One must have patience and try hard to become a person of integrity and goodwill. Honor is an everyday thing; obstacles that may deter one from being honorable lay all over the life path. Perseverance is key to honor. One must fight the constant impeding objects in order to maintain the highest level of honor. An island is often looked at as something isolated and secluded, yet it has a certain mystique about it. Honor is much like an island in this sense.
A test of all will power living with honor will not always be the most popular route and possibly could cause short-term alienation. Honor must come from inside and be impossible to be swayed by minor factors. A shore is a place that represents a compromise. Honor has no room for compromising in any way. It cannot be turned off and on when desired. People often see honor as something malleable. However, it is not something that one cannot play in certain environments.
An absolute way of life, honor is like a pass or fail the course, there is no in-between. A shore is a place of change. If one stays on the shore, s/he will drown at high tide, so the shore is not an option. The last part of the quote from Satires is the most important of all the aspects. Honor does not have three strikes, and you’re out of nine lives policy. Everybody is given one chance, and if that person chooses to invalidate his or her honor, it is lost. Honor does not have a series of choices. I see honor much in the way of a quote by well-known American author Gore Vidal, “One is sorry one could not have taken both branches of the road. But we were not allotted multiple selves.”
I firmly believe in living with the highest level of honor, which, in a way, is the only degree of honor. In the present day, many people have relaxed their standards, thinking that lying once or twice won’t matter because no one will find out. This common mentality is what hurts our society. People have lost the strong belief of self-respect, which is a major part of the honor. Honor should always be in one’s conscience and should be reflected through your actions. It is a distinct characteristic that separates this or that person from a group. Honor must be the center of what one’s moral revolves around and is the capstone of a person.
So, do we all have the honor?
It looks like every person has been in the situation when s/he felt miserable, and it seemed like no one was there to respect them. It is important to mention that every person has such quality from the early childhood years, and you just can’t forget or lose it. Plus, the honor is being protected by the government, which means in case someone humiliates it, s/he will be punished without any doubt.
But when people start thinking that no one truly respects them, that’s usually because they did something wrong, and they do understand that. And exactly because of what they have done, they feel no respect from the other people.
As a rule, these people start doing many good things after their mistakes. The reason is that it is very difficult for them to get over this feeling. As a result, they need to do something that will help them bring people’s respect back. However, it is important to be careful since if you do that on a regular basis, then chances are you will ruin your reputation. This, in turn, will bring a bunch of troubles.
All in all, honor is the quality that not only helps us understand how important we are, but also lets us get an idea of the importance of all the other people. Being a philosophical topic to some extent, honor is not the easiest thing to write about. That is why many students wonder ‘Who can write my essay for me?’ Approach professional writers ready to lend a helping hand with tasks of any complexity level.