Quotes about Honesty

It was the first honest emotional connection I'd had in a while. So I immediately panicked and had to leave.

Edmund Way Teale in his 1950 book Circle of the Seasons understood the dilemma better: It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have got it.

Tom Paine wrote in The Age of Reason: Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe. It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.

she had wondered if any of his Christianity was true. Had it all been a cover? A way to network and look honest? Or had he truly loved Jesus, but found ways to compartmentalize the sin in his life as so many others did?

Kids have what I call a built-in hypocrisy antenna that comes up and blocks out what you're saying when you're being a hypocrite.

Dishonesty of any kind will create a blemish.

Baloney is the lie laid on so thick you hate it. Blarney is flattery laid on so thin you love it.

The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.

A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies becomes unable to recognize the truth, either in himself or anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and others. When he had no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and, in order to divert himself, having no love in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest forms of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal. And it all comes from lying - to others and to yourself.

Understanding the truth is the doorway to new life. And understanding the truth often requires the use of labels. Honoring someone, whether that person is a boss, parent, or spouse, doesn't mean we have to pretend they're something they're not. Honoring and honesty can exist side by side.

How often do we Christians "take the Lord's name in vain" during our worship? It matters to God if we lie, even if we're singing, and even if everybody around us is singing the same thing. Music can make us feign a commitment that just isn't there, causing us to become callous, insincere believers.

Honesty demands directness: God has to discipline us to transform us.