Thoughts On Honesty

“I have tried if I could to reach that great resolution: to be honest without a thought of heaven or hell.”

—Sir Thomas Browne

“Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.”

—Jane Austen

“Necessity makes an honest man a knave.”

—Daniel Defoe

“Sometimes my candor may be difficult for people to hear, but they can trust they know where I stand.”

—Lori Garver

“Don’t edit your soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”

—Franz Kafka

“Honesty is the best policy, but he who is governed by that maxim is not an honest man.”

—Richard Whately

“Confidence in what you do is crucial, but that does not mean being delusional. You must always face the truth and then combat the obstacles as they appear.”

—Diane von Furstenberg

“That’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.”

—Khaled Hosseini

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people.”

—Virginia Woolf

“Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.”

—Ludwig Wittgenstein

“In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.”

—Czesław Miłosz

“Integrity means honesty and willingness to fulfill a promise, even at high cost.”

—Morris Chang

“Determine early on whether your passion is your true calling, or just a fantasy to get out of your system.”

—Tami Zhu

“Anything is better than lies and deceit!”

—Leo

Tolstoy

“When people ask, ‘How are you?’ Have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully.”

—Maya Angelou

“Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.”

—1 Peter 3:10