The upright man

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The upright man [is] always on the side of reason; with such tenacity of purpose that neither the passions of the mob nor the violence of the tyrant can force him to transgress its bounds.  But who is this paragon of equity?  For integrity has few intimates.  While many praise her, they do not, however, admit her to their homes; others follow her even into danger; there, the false deny her and politicians affect not to know her.  For she does not care whether she is at loggerheads with friendship, power, even self-interest, and here comes the rub of disowning her.  The astute then indulge in plausible metaphysical abstractions, so as not to give offence to their superiors, or out of regard for public opinion.  The honest man, however, regards dissimulation as a kind of treason; he sets more store by tenacity than shrewdness; he is to be found where truth is to be found and if he should desert people, it is not out of fickleness on his part but rather upon theirs, for having first abandoned truth.

Baltasar Gracian, The Oracle: A Manual of the Art of Discretion