Meaning of “If we know the truth and do not…”

Integrity functions as an internal guide when a person has to choose without knowing every consequence in advance.

Honesty is distinguished from strategy: a person of character tells the truth because it is right, not merely because truthfulness happens to be advantageous.

Consistent upright conduct reduces the need to maintain conflicting stories or hidden motives.

Jordan makes truthfulness foundational to character, treating honest conduct as structural rather than as a convenient tactic used only when it pays.

Wollstonecraft makes self-respect a moral standard rather than self-flattery: conduct should remain compatible with one’s own sense of truth and justice instead of being reorganized around gaining a respectable social position.

The test is deliberately simple: action and speech should each pass an ethical standard before they are expressed.