Quotations about honesty.
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- "All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not the science of goodness."
- Montaigne, Of Pedantry
- "An honest man's the noblest work of God."
- Alexander Pope, Essay on Man Epistle IV
- "But if he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons."
- Dr. Johnson, quoted in The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) by James Boswell July 14, 1763, p. 123
- "Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue. Honesty is hardly ever heard. And mostly what I need from you."
- Billy Joel, song lyrics Honesty
- "Honesty is the best policy."
- English proverb, 16th century
- "No legacy is so rich as honesty."
- "When men cease to be faithful to their God, he who expects to find them so to each other will be much disappointed."
- Bishop Horne, A Commentary on the Book of Psalm, psalm XII
- "No man is bound to be rich or great, no, nor to be wise; but every man is bound to be honest."
- Sir Benjamin Rudyard, Hansard's Parliamentary History p. 235, March 1627
- "Let honesty be as the breath of thy soul, and never forget to have a penny, when all thy expenses are enumerated and paid: then shalt thou reach the point of happiness, and independence shall be thy shield and buckler, thy helmet and crown; then shall thy soul walk upright nor stoop to the silken wretch because he hath riches, nor pocket an abuse because the hand which offers it wears a ring set with diamonds."
- Benjamin Franklin, The Art of Making Money Plenty, in Every Man’s Pocket
- "To be honest as this world goes is to be one man picked out of ten thousand."
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet Act II Scene II
- "The man who is so conscious of the rectitude of his intentions as to be willing to open his bosom to the inspection of the world, is already in possession of one of the strongest pillars of a decided character. The course of such a man will be firm and steady, because he has nothing to fear from the world, and is sure of the approbation and support of Heaven."
- William Wirt, An Address delivered Before the Peithessophian and Philoclean Societies of Rutgers College 20 July 1830
- "Honesty needs no disguise nor ornament; be plain."
- "Honesty is the best policy;" but he who acts on that principle is not an honest man.
- Richard Whately, On Some Obstacles to the Attainment of Truth, and to its Progress in the World
- "The leading idea is, nothing really succeeds which is not based on reality; the sham, in a large sense, is never successful; that in the life of the individual, as in the more comprehensive life of the state, pretension is nothing and power is everything."
- Edwin Percy Whipple, Success and Its Conditions
Unsourced
- "Honesty is the moral conscience of the great."
- William D’Avenant
- "No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar."
- "We tell lies when we are afraid... afraid of what we don't know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger."
- Tad Williams
- "Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest we have no right to keep him in public life, it matters not how brilliant his capacity, it hardly matters how great his power of doing good service on certain lines may be."
- "A half truth is a whole lie."
- Yiddish Proverb
- "If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."
- "The first step toward greatness is to be honest, says the proverb; but the proverb fails to state the case strong enough. Honesty is not only "the first step toward greatness,"—it is greatness itself."
- Bovee
- "The man who pauses in his honesty wants little of a villain."
- H. Martyn
- "Honesty is the best poetry."
- Gregory Alan Elliott
- "The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint."
- "There are people who think that honesty is always the best policy. This is a superstition; there are times when the appearance of it is worth six of it."
- "To be a master of the truth, first be a slave to your conscience."
- "What is becoming is honest, and whatever is honest must always be becoming.”
- "Fire is the spirit of candle and honesty is the spirit of man. Without spirit, there shall be no light but darkness."
- “If you act like an honest person, you won't get very far like that."
- Swami Raj
- “Honesty: The most important thing in life. Unless you really know how to fake it, you'll never really make it.”
- Bernard Rosenberg
- “It's easier to be dishonest for two than for one.”
- “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
- "Prefer loss before dishonest gain; for that brings grief but once; this forever."
- Chilo
- "A straight line is the shortest in morals as well as in geometry."
- Rahel
- "The shortest and surest way to live with honour in the world is to be in reality what we should appear to be."
- "Money dishonestly acquired is never worth its cost, while a good conscience never costs as much as it is worth."
- J. P. Senn
- "He who says that there is no such thing as an honest man is himself a knave."
- Berkeley
External links
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Now's also a good time to talk about why honesty is important. Trust (in my book) is the most important quality in any relationship, ...
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