Famous Honesty Quotations

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"No legacy is so rich as honesty."
by William Shakespeare
"It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."
by H. L. Mencken
"For them that think death's honesty Won't fall upon them naturally Life sometimes Must get lonely."
by Bob Dylan
"All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse."
by John Quincy Adams
"A man is sorry to be honest for nothing."
by Ovid
"The brutal honesty that he brings to the game and to the clubhouse is why we play so hard. He's going to tell you when you're doing great, and he's going to tell you when you screwed up and did something wrong. He's intense. He's passionate. I don't think anything changed from the days when he was a player. That's a huge bonus for us. He's as animated on the field as he is off. Guys feed off that energy that he has."
by Geoff Blum
"The honest man must be a perpetual renegade, the life of an honest man a perpetual infidelity. For the man who wishes to remain faithful must take himself perpetually unfaithful to all the continual, successive, indefatigable, renascent errors."
by Charles Peguy
"the overall system is almost incompatible with honesty."
by James McGregor
"There is something greater than wealth, grander even than fame -- manhood, character, stand for success... nothing else really does."
by Orison Swett Marden
"They're the kind of people who were honest. They'd listen and tell me what they thought - the kind of honesty you need when you're trying to perfect your craft."
by Gretchen Wilson
"To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education."
by John Ruskin
"We did the triple, but in all honesty, I suppose we're supposed to display some gratitude. We are grateful because, you know, voted for by the people and all that, we're very happy about that but who else was going to be the best British band at the moment, you know?"
by Alex Turner
"We found in this long journey in a short time a great capacity for honesty, a great solidarity from the people for the Egyptian program for change, for the Egyptian program to reform this nation,"
by Ayman Nour
"We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones."
by Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"What we demand is integrity and honesty of the research that is rendered,"
by Anonymous
"Would you want to do business with a person who was 99% honest?"
by Sidney Madwed
"You have to choose between trusting to the natural stability of gold and the natural stability of the honesty and intelligence of the members of the government. And, with due respect to these gentlemen, I advise you, as long as the capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold."
by Anonymous
"All mankind lives and each man strives by codes of conduct mutually agreed. Perhaps these codes are good, perhaps theyre bad, its only evident theyre codes. Mores bind the race. Coaction then occurs. Thought and motion in accord. A oneness then of purpose and survival so results. But now against that code there is transgression. And so because the code was held, whatever code it was, and man sought comfort in mans company, he held back his deed and so entered then the bourne in which no being laughs or has a freedom in his heart."
by Ron Hubbard
"Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense."
by Anonymous
"Honesty is always the best policy. You always want to take accountability."
by Lisa Mininni
"Honesty is a long lost art form resigned to the archives of famous quotes and a few lone ducks in a pond of hypocrites."
by Travis Hedrick
"It is annoying to be honest to no purpose."
by Ovid
"If you were to ask anybody at Intel with intellectual honesty, if they had a magic wand, would they go ahead and [integrate the controller]? They'd say yes."
by Henri Richard
"On this mounting the scaffold to be beheaded: ''I pray you Master Lieutenant, see me safely up, and for my coming down, let me shift for myself.'' To the executioner: ''Pick up thy spirits, Man, and be not afraid to do thy office; my neck is very short; take heed, therefore thou strike not awry, for saving of thy honesty.''"
by Source Unknown
"People who are brutally honest get more satisfaction out of the brutality than out of the honesty."
by Richard Needham
"Rhetoric is good for the politician, but even he comes to the point when he must take responsibility for his words."
by A'Yanna Webster
"Mercy to living beings, self restraint, truth, honesty, chastity and contentment, right faith and knowledge, and austerity are but the entourage of morality."
by Sila-Prabhrita
"It's a gentleman's game based on honesty. Still, we require that someone see the golfer hit the shot."
by James Bowen
"It happens every week, so it is not fair to the players, in all honesty."
by Nick Saban
"It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself."
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I love honesty, and she's the most honest person I ever met. I knew a lot of people. You can tell if they're going to be for you or not. I knew that she was for me."
by Dick Brown
"In all honesty, they should be,"
by Alan Trammell
"In all honesty, for a school full of extremely smart people, we made some really stupid decisions [in the Wash. U. game]. It's really amazing. It happens. You're going to have mental errors, and that's just where you have to be tougher."
by Chris LePage
"Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bear bad fruit."
by James Allen
"According to the court, there were no improprieties regarding honesty, expenses, gift giving; he just dismissed without merit all of those allegations. ... I think the chancellor's decision with regard to Mister Ovitz is rock solid."
by Mark Epstein
"An honest man's the noblest work of God."
by Alexander Pope
"He that loseth his honesty hath nothing else to lose."
by John Lyly
"He that jokes confesses."
by Italian Proverb
"He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage."
by Samuel Johnson
"I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy."
by George Bernard Shaw
"It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right."
by Winston Churchill
"Honesty pays, but it doesn't seem to pay enough to suit some people."
by F. M. Hubbard
"Oh for someone with a heart, head and hand. Whatever they call them, what do I care, aristocrat, democrat, autocrat, just be it one that can rule and dare not lie."
by Lord Alfred Tennyson
"Beautiful faces are those that wear whole-souled honesty printed there."
by Ellen Palmer Allerton
"Certainly he is not of the generation that regards honesty as the best policy. However, he does regard it as a policy. (On President Richard M Nixon)"
by Irving Layton
"Civilization has been thrust upon me... and it has not added one whit to my love for truth, honesty, and generosity."
by Luther Standing Bear
"Confidence... thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live."
by Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity."
by Michel de Montaigne
"Concentration is my motto - first honesty, then industry, then concentration."
by Andrew Carnegie
"Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad."
by Salvador Dali
"Each time you are honest and conduct yourself with honesty, a success force will drive you toward greater success. Each time you lie, even with a little white lie, there are strong forces pushing you toward failure."
by Joseph Sugarman
"Every man has his fault, and honesty is his."
by William Shakespeare
"Honesty is the best image."
by Tom Wilson
"Honesty is probably the sexiest thing a man can give to a woman."
by Debra Messing
"Honesty is for the most part, less profitable than dishonesty."
by Plato
"Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty."
by Plato
"Honesty is being able to tell the truth without hurting anyone."
by Federico Fellini
"Honesty is all you need."
by Cass Elliot
"Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control."
by Don Marquis
"Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway."
by Mother Theresa
"Honesty rare as a man without self-pity, kinders as large and plain as a prairie wind."
by Stephen Vincent Benet
"Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy."
by George Carlin
"Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy"
by George Carlin
"Honesty is the recognition of the fact that the unreal is unreal and can have no value, that neither love nor fame nor cash is a value if obtained by fraud."
by Ayn Rand
"Honesty is the only way with anyone, when you'll be so close as to be living inside each other's skins."
by Lois McMaster Bujold
"Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."
by Thomas Jefferson
"Honesty is the best policy; but he who is governed by that maxim is not an honest man."
by Richard Whately
"Honesty is the best policy."
by Benjamin Franklin
"Honesty is the best policy - when there is money in it."
by Mark Twain
"Honesty is the best part of any art form. If you don't have that, you're kidding yourself and your listener."
by Billie Joe
"How frequently are the honesty and integrity of a man disposed of by a smile or a shrug. How many good and generous actions have been sunk into oblivion by a distrustful look, or stamped with the imputation of bad motives, by a mysterious and seasonable whisper!"
by Sterne
"I always like to reveal the fact that the emperor has no clothes. And children are best at that. They teach us how to see the world in that sense. They are without artifice; they see it for what it is. I am drawn to that ruthless honesty."
by Mira Nair
"I am sure you will be guided right in your decision, to place implicit faith in his integrity and honesty. Best wishes from one who has known Richard longer than anyone else. His mother."
by Hannah Nixon
"I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex."
by Bertrand Russell
"I guess each of us, at some time, finds one person with whom we are compelled toward absolute honesty, one person whose good opinion of us becomes a substitute for the broader opinion of the world."
by Glen Cook
"I have Indian blood in me. I have just enough white blood for you to question my honesty!"
by Will Rogers
"If our actions stem from honesty, kindness, caring, and vision, then no matter what the result of our efforts, we have added something of value to our souls and to the world."
by Joan Boysenko
"If we slide into one of those rare moments of military honesty, we realize that the technical demands of modern warfare are so complex a considerable percentage of our material is bound to malfunction even before it is deployed against a foe. We no longer waste manpower by carrying the flag into battle. Instead we need battalions of electronic engineers to keep the terrible machinery grinding."
by Ernest K. Gann
"In all honesty, Johnny, we are often at the mercy of the White House for the news we report. Frequently, we simply repeat verbatim what the White House tells us."
by Connie Chung to Johnny Carson
"Integrity is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake your consciousness, just as honesty is the recognition of the fact that you cannot fake existence."
by Ayn Rand
"Industry, economy, honesty, and kindness form a quartet of virtues that will never be improved upon."
by James Oliver
"It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."
by H. L. Mencken
"It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for any public office."
by Henry Louis Mencken
"It was a grand trait of the old Roman that with him one and the same word meant both honor and honesty."
by Advance
"It was the boast of Augustus that he found Rome of brick and left it of marble. But how much nobler will be the sovereign's boast when he shall have it to say that he found law... a sealed book and left it a living letter found it the patrimony of the rich and left it the inheritance of the poor found it the two-edged sword of craft and oppression and left it the staff of honesty and the shield of innocence."
by Henry Brougham
"Living up to basic ethical standards in the classroom-discipline, tolerance, honesty-is one of the most important ways children learn how to function in society at large."
by Eloise Salholz
"No matter how brilliant a man may be, he will never engender confidence in his subordinates and associates if he lacks simple honesty and moral courage."
by J. Lawton Collins
"Our institutions and values are in jeopardy as the mores of the market pervade all social life in this country. Loyalty, honesty, courage, discipline, patriotism, and commitment to family are being crowded out by the goals and rules of economic rationality -- do whatever makes the most money."
by Barry Schwartz
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth"
by Henry Mencken
"The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale."
by Arthur C. Clarke
"The elegance of honesty needs no adornment."
by Merry Browne
"The forces that tend for evil are great and terrible, but the forces of truth and love and courage and honesty and generosity and sympathy are also stronger than ever before"
by Theodore Roosevelt
"The man who is brutally honest enjoys the brutality quite as much as the honesty. Possibly more."
by Richard Needham
"The rich, the well-born, and the able, acquire an influence among the people that will soon be too much for simple honesty and plain sense, in a house of representatives. The most illustrious of them must, therefore, be separated from the mass, and placed by themselves in a senate; this is, to all honest and useful intents, an ostracism."
by John Adams
"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made."
by Julius Henry Marx
"They envy the distinction I have won; let them therefore, envy my toils, my honesty, and the methods by which I gained it."
by Sallust
"They envy the distinction I have won let them therefore, envy my toils, my honesty, and the methods by which I gained it."
by Sallust
"Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained."
by Lao Tzu
"Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who hath any honesty in him."
by William Shakespeare


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