My other biggest challenge at the academy revolved around the honor system. Honor, to me, is a simple do or don't. USAFA had gone through some recent cheating scandals, which threw a sharp focus on the system of dealing with honor violations and demoralized the wing. At the academy our honor system seemed bogged down by specifics and nuances of meaning. It was treated like a court of law, which shocked me. At the Point, honor was simple; it wasn't thought over, it wasn't discussed, it wasn't codified, analyzed, beaten to the ground, or weakened by myriad interpretations. We just lived with it, accepted it; we didn't lie, didn't cheat, and didn't steal. Not lying meant you didn't make falsehoods, known falsehoods, deliberate falsehoods, or little white falsehoods. You didn't cheat on exams or in the classroom. You didn't steal. That just meant you didn't steal. Period.

Unfortunately, over the millennnia there have been men and women who cloaked themselves in "honor" only to be as unscrupulous and as vile as any humans in history. But true honor- doing the right thing for the right reasons- is the foundation of great leadership. With it, your colleagues will follow you through the trials and hardships of your quest. But without honor, nothing you accomplish will be of lasting value. And if you dishonor your company, your family, your country, or your faith, then your legacy of leadership will be forever tainted.

In this world, there must be a certain degree of honor just as there must be a certain amount of light. When there are many men without honor, there will always be some others who bear in themselves the honor of many men.

Honor is the same as credit; it's one's ability to keep ones promises, but also, in the case of a wrong, to "get even".

Honor and shame from no condition rise. Act well your part: there all the honor lies.

Act well your part,
there all the honor lies.

Honor is like the eye, which cannot suffer the least impurity without damage. It is a precious stone, the price of which is lessened by a single flaw.

If I have learned anything in my time among you, it is this: true honor lives not in the skill of weapons or the strength of arms, but in virtue. Skill fades and strength fails; virtue alone remains. Therefore, let us put off all that is false. Let us prefer instead the valor of virtue, and the glory of right.

What is pride without honor? What is honor without truth? Honor is not what you say. It is not what you read." Romulus thumps his chest. "Honor is what you do.

Honor to a Spaniard, no matter how dishonest, is as real a thing as water, wine, or olive oil. There is honor among pickpockets and honor among whores. It is simply that the standards differ.

I’m trying to do what’s right, whether or not that measures up with what men call honorable. There’s a gap between those, you know?

Honor is only a label they use for what they want you to do, Chernon. They want you to stay, so they call staying honorable.

Honor. What an overused word. It's an abstraction. Who can define it? All year in Iraq, I've stood with my men. If they had to fill sandbags until three in the morning, I'd be out there in the dirt and mud with them. I would never give an order, then go relax as they worked. My example is all I have as a noncommissioned officer. I take pride in that. That is my honor. I've always told my men not to be afraid in combat. When the bullets start flying, they need to man-up and dish it back tenfold. How many times have I drilled this into them? Perhaps telling them to be unafraid is unrealistic. We're all human. Fear walks with us in every battle. Yet we cannot allow fear to dictate who we are and how we act. That is another essential element of honor.

What is left when honor is lost?