Quotes on Honesty

All religions try to benefit people, with the same basic message of the need for love and compassion, for justice and honesty, for contentment.

Thousands upon thousands of lights is inferior to a light of heart.

One of the few things in life that cannot possibly do harm in the end is the honest pursuit of the truth.

You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it.

The root of the matter is a very simple and old fashioned thing... love or compassion. If you feel this, you have a motive for existence, a guide for action, a reason for courage, an imperative necessity for intellectual honesty.

Rich honesty dwells like a miser, Sir, in a poor house; as your pearl in your foul oyster.

The truth needs so little rehearsal.

Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be, all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.

Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.

Again and again, I learn how much friendship enriches my life, bringing warmth, assurance, humour, inspiration, a sense of security. It depends on honesty, trust, loyalty. It's about giving. It's for sharing the good times, but also the tough times, hurt, grief, sadness.

There is a case for telling the truth; there is a case for avoiding the scandal; but there is no possible defense for the man who tells the scandal, but does not tell the truth

It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself.

He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man.

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.

We must not allow ourselves to become like the system we oppose. We cannot afford to use methods of which we will be ashamed when we look back, when we say, '...we shouldn't have done that.'

The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.

Rather than going after our walls and barriers with a sledgehammer, we pay attention to them. With gentleness and honesty, we move closer to those walls. We touch them and smell them and get to know them well. We begin a process of acknowledging our aversions and our cravings. We become familiar with the strategies and beliefs we use to build the walls: What are the stories I tell myself? What repels me and what attracts me? We start to get curious about what’s going on.

Conscience doth make cowards of us all.

Self-awareness involves deep personal honesty. It comes from asking and answering hard questions.