The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - )
Where is there dignity unless there is honesty?
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)
Maybe coming clean is the ultimate selfish act. A way to absolve1 yourself by hurting someone who doesn't deserve to be hurt.
Cindy Chupack, Sex and the City, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, 2000
Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control.
Don Marquis (1878 - 1937)
The day is for honest men, the night for thieves.
Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC), Iphigenia in Tauris, circa 412 B.C.
I would rather be accused of breaking precedents3 than breaking promises.
John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963)
Honesty pays, but it doesn't seem to pay enough to suit some people.
Kin2 Hubbard (1868 - 1930)
If the truth doesn't save us, what does that say about us?
Lois McMaster Bujold, Diplomatic Immunity4, 2002
Friends should always tell you the truth. But please don’t.
Louis C. K., Vanity Fair interview, 2013
Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
When in doubt, tell the truth.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
Level with your child by being honest. Nobody spots a phony quicker than a child.
Mary MacCracken
When something that honest is said it usually needs a few minutes of silence to dissipate.
Pamela Ribon, Why Girls Are Weird5, 2003
Son, always tell the truth. Then you'll never have to remember what you said the last time.
Sam Rayburn (1882 - 1961), quoted Washingtonian, November 1978
Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.
Samuel Butler (1835 - 1902)
Being entirely6 honest with oneself is a good exercise.
Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), letter to John Melish, January 13, 1813
There are only two ways of telling the complete truth--anonymously and posthumously7.
Thomas Sowell (1930 - )
Honesty is the best image.
Tom Wilson, Ziggy (comic)
Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.
Walter Anderson
I have always noticed that people will never laugh at anything that is not based on truth.
Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)
Every man has his fault, and honesty is his.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Timon of Athens", Act 3 scene 1
I thank God I am as honest as any man living that is an old man and no honester than I.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Much Ado about Nothing", Act 3 scene 1
No legacy8 is so rich as honesty.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "All's Well that Ends Well", Act 3 scene 5
Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
