Quotes about Honesty

You wish to be a poet; you wish to be a lover. But the splendid clarity of your intelligence, and the remorseless honestly of your intellect bring you to a halt.

To tell the truth about oneself, to discover oneself near at hand, is not easy.

To know the truth—to accept without bitterness

Would that we might spare the reader what is to come and say to him in so many words, Orlando died and was buried. But here, alas, Truth, Candour, and Honesty, the austere Gods, who keep watch and ward by the inkpot of the biographer, cry No!

Over the obscure man is poured the merciful suffusion of darkness. None knows where he goes or comes. He may seek the truth and speak it; he alone is free; he alone is truthful, he alone is at peace. And so he sank into a quiet mood, under the oak tree, the hardness of whose roots, exposed above the ground seemed to him rather comfortable than otherwise.

To know that you do not know is the best. To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.

Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.

Never close your lips to those whom you have opened your heart.

Never… be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel.

The first rule of business is: Do other men for they would do you.

We need never be ashamed of our tears.

To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached, is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart.