honesty quotes

A remark generally hurts in proportion to its truth.

Few men would dare to read their own autobiography if all their deeds were recorded in it; few can look back upon their entire career without a blush.

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

If someone lies, well, you had a choice to trust that person or not. I think the way my father raised me, well, he trusted everybody. And that worked for him.

The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give everyone else his due.

Why lie? I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say the opposite of what I think, like some others do.

If every choice you make comes from an honest place, you’re solid, and nothing anybody can say about you can rock you or change your opinion.

I want to be an honest man and a good writer.

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

I meant what I said and I said what I meant.

No one ever doubts that I mean what I say. The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean.

I’ve laid my friends bare.

I don’t want to tell President Obama how to make a speech. He’s a much better speech maker than I am. But I think always to tell the truth in a sometimes blatant way, even though it might be temporarily unpopular, is the best approach.

You must be afraid, my son. That is how one becomes an honest citizen.

I don’t mind telling a dark side.

If one could be friendly with women, what a pleasure – the relationship so secret and private compared with relations with men. Why not write about it truthfully?

I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.

All cruel people describe themselves as paragons of frankness.

If you’re lying, you’re lying.

I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do, and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.

I have a personal ambition to live my life honestly and honor the true love that I’ve had and also the people I’ve had around me. I want to stay hopeful, even though I get scared about why we’re even alive at all.

Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

No public man can be just a little crooked.

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.

I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming from inside. There’s no tricks. It’s honesty with big melodies.

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods.

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.

One tells as few lies as possible only by telling as few lies as possible, and not by having the least possible opportunity to do so.

I have a personal ambition to live my life honestly and honor the true love that I’ve had and also the people I’ve had around me.

I suppose my best attribute, if you want to call it that, is sincerity. I can sell sincerity because that’s the way I am.

A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

Live truth instead of professing it.

Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.

By a lie, a man… annihilates his dignity as a man.

I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

If anything, I get most upset because I wanna read a good paper first thing in the morning. And if I see a lie about myself flash across the front of the cover, I don’t think much of the rest of the newspaper.

I just think you ought to talk straight with your people.

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

No such thing as a man willing to be honest – that would be like a blind man willing to see.

I never promise anything. I don’t promise anything to my mum. I don’t promise anything to the supporters.

That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward.

No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.

I’ve got nothing to hide.

An honest man is always a child.

I hate talking about music, to tell you the truth.

I always wanted a great love affair: something that feels big and full, really honest, and enough. No moment should feel slight, false, or a little off. For me, it had to be everything.

My days, my years, my life has seen up and downs, lights and darknesses. If I wrote only and continually of the ‚light‘ and never mentioned the other, then as an artist, I would be a liar.

Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.

I do not pilfer victory.

Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.