Meaning of “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity…”

Care can be generous without requiring another person to inherit every belief or preference.

A relationship entered from the ability to stand independently can preserve dignity more fully than one made necessary by the inability to exist outside it.

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

Polonius frames integrity as consistency between inward conviction and outward conduct, although the advice belongs to a fallible fictional counselor.

Dickinson’s compressed image emphasizes selective attention and the right to decide what receives intimate access.

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.