The following saying illustrates the importance of integrity in business and in politics: “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.” (Also, “If a person has integrity, nothing else matters. If a person doesn’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”)
 
The quotation is usually credited to former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson, who served from 1979-1997. In October 2000, Simpson made the remark against Al Gore, who was then running for U.S. president.
 
The quotation is sometimes credited to Winston Churchill (1874-1965), but there is no evidence that he ever said it. There is an anonymous (“it has been said”) citation of the saying in 1997, indicating that Simpson possibly took it from another speaker.
 
 
Wikipedia: Alan Simpson
Alan Kooi Simpson (born 2 September 1931) is a Republican politician who served from 1979 to 1997 as a United States senator from Wyoming.
 
Sourced
If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.
. As quoted in Eyewitness to Power (2001) by David Gergen
 
7 March 1997, Milwaukee (WI) Journal Sentinel, “Development, council integrity called top issues 4 candidates seek appointment to New Berlin Common Council” by Mark Lisheron:
It has been said that if you have integrity, that is all that matters. If you do not have integrity, nothing else matters.
     
6 October 2000, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Cheney tears into Gore’s credibility” by Todd J. Gillman:
“If you have integrity, nothing else matters. And if you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters. It would be good when the vice president remembers that.”
(Spoken by Alan Simpson—ed.)
   
12 October 2000, Las Vegas (NV) Review-Journal, “GOP scores at last!” by Steve Sebelius:
“If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters,” he (Alan Simpson—ed.) says. “If you do have integrity, nothing else matters.”
   
Google Books
National forum of educational administration and supervision: journal
By Northwestern State University of Louisiana. College of Education and Behavioral Sciences
v. 19 - 2001
Pg. 60:
Former Senator Alan Simpson (Oregon Public Broadcast Radio, 2000) of Wyoming stated, “To me if you have integrity; nothing else matters. And if you don’t have integrity; nothing else matters.”
   
Google Books
Eyewitness to Power
By David Gergen
New York, NY: Simon and Schuster
2001
Pg. 346:
Of these, integrity is the most important for a president. As former senator Alan Simpson said in introducing Gerald Ford at Harvard a year ago: “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”
 
25 March 2001, Santa Fe (NM) New Mexican, pg. E2, col. 6:
He points to four reminders that hang on the wall around his office door and which he says keep him on track. Among them is a sign that proclaims: “If a person has integrity, nothing else matters. If a person doesn’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”
 
The Bellingham Tea Party
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
“Integrity”
Listening to ‘The Glenn Beck Show’, his guest shared this quote from Winston Churchill:
 
“With integrity, nothing else counts.  Without integrity, nothing else counts.”

Please spend time thinking about that.  It is not only profound, but it is sorely lacking in quantity these days.  Make a promise to yourself and your family to spend time exemplifying this quality.  Then take the time to be sure our leaders do, too.  R~ Kris Halterman
Posted by Kris Halterman at 11:50 PM