quotations about honesty
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
OSCAR WILDE
The Critic as Artist
There is one way to find out if a man is honest. Ask him! If he says yes, you know he's crooked.
GROUCHO MARX
attributed, The Harper Book of Quotations
Sneakiness and underhanded dealing are doubtless to be reckoned among the arts of self-advancement. Honesty is, in many cases, unquestionably the very worst policy. But though honesty be so, honesty is the right thing after all. But honest men sometimes think to possess together two inconsistent things. They think to possess the high sense of scrupulous integrity, and at the same time the favour, patronage, and profit which can be had only by parting with that.
ANDREW KENNEDY HUTCHISON BOYD
The Commonplace Philosopher in Town and Country
I will be honest if only to differ from my neighbors.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Conversations of Goethe
A day without honesty is like a day without sunshine.
JAMES H. MERKEL & ABDUL WAHAD AL-FALAIJ
On the Art of Business
I have found that being honest is the best technique I can use. Right up front, tell people what you're trying to accomplish and what you're willing to sacrifice to accomplish it.
LEE IACOCCA
U.S. News & World Report, 1985
A clean mouth and an honest hand
Will take a man through any land.
GERMAN PROVERB
There is an honesty which is but decided selfishness in disguise. The man who will not refrain from expressing his sentiments and manifesting his feelings, however unfit the time, however inappropriate the place, however painful this expression may be, lays claim, forsooth, to our approbation as an honest man, and sneers at those of finer sensibilities as hypocrites.
ARTHUR HELPS
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
I'm going to tell it like it is. I hope you can take it like it is.
MALCOLM X
speech at founding rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, Jun. 28, 1964
An honest man is all of a piece the whole contexture of his life.
DANIEL DEFOE
"On Relative Honesty"
With death comes honesty.
SALMAN RUSHDIE
The Satanic Verses
The purifying influence of public confession springs from the fact, that by it the hope in lies is forever swept away, and the soul recovers the noble attitude of simplicity.
GEORGE ELIOT
Romola
Successful people have cultivated the habit of never denying to themselves their true feelings and attitudes. They have no need for pretenses.
DAVID HAROLD FINK
Be Your Real Self
Honesty maketh rich, but she works slowly.
GERMAN PROVERB