Quotes about Honesty

Self-sacrifice, we drool, is a virtue. Is sacrifice a virtue? Can a man sacrifice his integrity? His honor? His freedom? His ideal? His convictions? The honesty of his feeling? The independence of his thoughts? But these are a man's supreme possessions. Anything he gives up for them is not a sacrifice but an easy bargain.

There is no conflict, and no call for sacrifice, and no man is a threat to the aims of another—if men understand that reality is an absolute not to be faked, that lies do not work, that the unearned cannot be had, that the undeserved cannot be given, that the destruction of a value which is, will not bring value to that which isn't.

You can fake virtue for an audience. You can't fake it in your own eyes. Your ego is your strictest judge.

Observe also that an honest theoretician does not try to present his ideas in the guise of their opposites. But Kant's philosophy is presented as "pure reason"—altruism is presented as a doctrine of "love"—communism is presented as "liberation"—and egalitarianism is presented as "justice.

Integrity does not consist of loyalty to ones subjective whims, but of loyalty to rational principles

Be conscious of God and speak always the truth

And then there was the unsettling fact that, despite whatever my mother might claim, the bullies, cheats, and self-promoters seemed to be doing quite well, while those she considered good and decent people seemed to get screwed an awful lot.

When I was a kid I inhaled frequently. That was the point.

If I say I will do something, I must do it. Otherwise, how will people know that my word is true?

The truth needs so little rehearsal.

Lies are infinite in number, and the truth so small and singular.

Keeping secrets from young ears only plants seeds in between them