Honor. Above All

We talk a lot of honor, how we play and how we fight.
But honor's nothing more than what is wrong and what is right.
Honor isn't something you can put on with your sword.
It remains how you conduct yourself, and how you keep your word.

Once your word is given, will it always be as good,
Five years or more on down the road, no matter what's withstood?
Does it waver with the situation that you find at hand?
Then your honor's as unsteady as a shifting pile of sand.

Does your honor stay the same no matter if it's night or day?
Does it depend on whether someone looks the other way?
Are you nervous for your honor if your deeds are brought to light?
Is your honor something you prefer to keep hid out of sight?

"My honor is my life!" Proud men have ever made the boast.
But honor becomes cheaply held, when it bears a cost.
When subjected to the testing flame it burns away like dross.
Where is one who'll keep his honor, suffering the loss?

Honor that is cheaply purchased carries no great worth.
Honor that costs everything's the rarest thing on earth;
That faces without flinching, the hardest judge of all;
The one that in the mirror waits to measure honor's fall.