Honesty
see also Truth
- Almost any difficulty will move in the face of honesty. When I am honest I never feel stupid. And when I am honest I am automatically humble.--Hugh Prather (I Touch the Earth, The Earth Touches Me)
- Be sincere and true to your word, serious and careful in your actions; and you will get along even among barbarians, But if you are not sincere and untrustworthy in your speech, frivolous and careless in your actions, how will you get along even among your own neighbors? When stand, see these principles in front of you; in your carriage see them on the yoke. Then you may be sure to get along.--Confucius (The Analects)
- Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.--Henry David Thoreau
- Commend me to sterling honesty though clad in rags.--Sir Walter Scott
- Deal honestly and objectively with yourself; intellectual honesty and personal courage are the hallmarks of great character.--Brian Tracey (The Treasury of Quotes)
- Don't worry so much about your self-esteem. Worry more about your character. Integrity is its own reward.--Laura Schlessinger
- Every man should make up his own mind that if he expect to succeed, he must give an honest return for the other man's dollar.--Edward H. Harriman
- Every time we give our word, it counts. For the most part, most people give it entirely too often. Our word is a precious commodity and should be treated as such.--John-Roger and Peter McWilliams (Do It! Let's Get Off our Buts)
- The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.--Zig Ziglar
- He that loseth his honesty hath nothing else to lose.--John Lyly ("Euphues" Eushues: the Anatomy of Wit)
- Hold firmly to your word.--Maimonides
- An honest answer is the sign of true friendship.--Proverbs 24:26
- An honest man's the noblest work of God.--Alexander Pope (An Essay on Man)
- Honesty has come to mean the privilege of insulting you to your face without expecting redress.--Judith Martin
- Honesty is better than any policy.--Immanuel Kant (Appendix to "Perpetual Peace" On Honesty ed. by Beck)
- Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.--Thomas Jefferson
- Honesty pays, but it don't seem to pay enough to suit some.--Kin Hubbard
- "Honesty" without compassion and understanding is not honesty, but subtle hostility.--Rose N. Franzblau (in New York Post, 1966)
- How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people.--Edward White Benson
- How happy is he born or taught,
That serveth not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill!--Henry Wotton ("The Character of a Happy Life")
- How shall Integrity face Oppression? What shall Honesty do in the face of Deception, Decency in the face of Insult, Self-Defense before Blows? How shall Desert and Accomplishment meet Despising, Detraction, and Lies? What shall Virtue do to meet Brute Force? There are so many answers and so contradictory; and such differences for those on the one hand who meet questions similar to this once a year or once a decade, and those who face them hourly and daily.--W. E. B. Du Bois
- I have found that being honest is the best technique I can use. Right up front, tell people what you're trying to accomplish and what you're willing to sacrifice to accomplish it.--Lee Iacocca
- I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an "Honest Man."--George Washington (Maxim)
- If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.--Virginia Woolf
- If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity,nothing else matters.--Alan Simpson
- If you have the courage to be honest with everyone, including yourself, you may hurt a few people's feelings, but they will forever value your opinion more than your half truths.--Steven Aitchison
- If you stand straight, do not fear a crooked shadow.--Chinese proverb
- If you want to take the meaning of the word integrity and reduce it to its simplest terms, you'd conclude that a man of integrity is a promise keeper. When he gives you his word. You can take it to the bank. His word is good.--Bill McCartney (Your Achievement Ezine - Issue No. 155)
- In the choice between changing ones mind and proving there's no need to do so, most people get busy on the proof.--John Kenneth Galbraith
- Integrity has no need of rules.--Albert Camus
- Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching.--Jim Stovall (You Don't Have to Be Blind to See)
- Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.--Spencer Johnson ("Yes" or "No")
- Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.--Samuel Johnson
- It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.--Noel Coward
- Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you?--Fanny Brice
- Life demands honesty, the ability to face, admit, and express oneself.--Starhawk
- Many people today don't want honest answers insofar as honest means unpleasant or disturbing, They want a soft answer that turneth away anxiety.--Louis Kronenberger
- Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.--Marcus Aurelius
- No legacy is so rich as honesty.--William Shakespeare
- No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which one is true.--Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter)
- 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
- A "No" uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a "Yes" merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.--Mohandas Gandhi
- Nothing so completely baffles one who is full of tricks and duplicity himself, than straightforward and simple integrity in another.--Charles Caleb Coltron (Lacon)
- The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.--Harper Lee
- People generally think that it is the world, the environment, external relationships, which stand in one's way, in the way of ones' good fortune... and at bottom it is always man himself that stands in his own way.--Soren Kierkegaard
- Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.--Oprah Winfrey
- The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.--Laura Ingalls Wilder
- The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend on it.--Jimmy Carter (Inaugural Address as Governor of Georgia, Jan. 12. 1977)
- Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls. The least admixture of a lie--for example, the taint of vanity, the least attempt to make a good impression, a favorable appearance--will instantly vitiate the effect.--Ralph Waldo Emerson
- There can be no friendship without confidence, an no confidence without integrity.--Samuel Johnson
- Those occupying leadership roles who completely lack integrity are what we call 'Blind shepherds'. They are not really 'bad' leaders, because they are not leaders at all: they are misleaders.--John Adair (The Leadership of Muhammad)
- To be prosperous is not to be superior, and should form no barrier between men. Wealth out not to secure the prosperous the slightest consideration. The only distinctions which should be recognized are those of the soul, of strong principle, of incorruptible integrity, of usefulness, of cultivated intellect, of fidelity in seeking the truth.--William Ellery Channing
- To have true integrity, poise, and courage is to be attuned to the silent and invisible nature within you. --John O'Donohue (Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong)
- To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education.--John Ruskin (Time and Tide)
- To me, the best case to make for honesty is how beautiful it is. How clean and clear it makes the journey from current reality to the dream.--Steve Chandler (100 Ways to Motivate Yourself>)
- Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.--Ralph Waldo Emerson
- What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.--Doris Lessing
- With integrity you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt. With fear and guilt removed you are free to be and do your best.--Zig Ziglar (Zig Ziglar's Little Book of Big Quotes)
- You learn how to do good work by being honest with yourself.--Rodney Crowell
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