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Honesty quotes

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“Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” - 1623

“When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it;— this is knowledge.” Confucius, “Analects”

“The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.” Thomas Jefferson, “A Summary View of the Rights of British America” - 1774

“You can always cheat an honest man, but it takes more work.” Neil Gaiman, “American Gods” - 2001

“To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.” William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” - 1623

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.” William Shakespeare, “All's Well That Ends Well” - 1623

“When a man really tells the truth, the first truth he tells is that he himself is a liar.” G. K. Chesterton, “What's Wrong with the World” - 1910

“Anything's better than lying and deceit.” Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina” - 1877

“Honest people don't hide their deeds.” Emily Brontë, “Wuthering Heights” - 1847

“Can you honestly love a dishonest thing?” John Steinbeck, “The Winter of Our Discontent” - 1961

“Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?” William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” - 1623

“If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.” William Shakespeare, “Othello” - 1623

“Take note, take note, O world, to be direct and honest is not safe.” William Shakespeare, “Othello” - 1623

“I like not fair terms and a villain's mind.” William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice” - 1600

“I am not bound to please thee with my answer.” William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice” - 1600

“O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!” William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice” - 1600

“Though it be honest, it is never good to bring bad news: give to a gracious message an host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell themselves when they be felt.” William Shakespeare, “Antony and Cleopatra” - 1623

“Plain and not honest is too harsh a style.” William Shakespeare, “Richard III” - 1597

“Though I am not naturally honest, I am so sometimes by chance.” William Shakespeare, “The Winter's Tale” - 1623

“O dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant can tickle where she wounds!” William Shakespeare, “Cymbeline” - 1623

“If you take temptations into account, who is to say that he is better than his neighbour? A comfortable career of prosperity, if it does not make people honest, at least keeps them so.” William Makepeace Thackeray, “Vanity Fair” - 1847

“Corruption wins not more than honesty.” William Shakespeare, “Henry VIII” - 1623

“Every man has his fault, and honesty is his.” William Shakespeare, “Timon of Athens” - 1623

“Do not cast away an honest man for a villain's accusation.” William Shakespeare, “Henry VI, Part 2” - 1594

“Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” - 1841

“My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” - 1841

“The cruelty of fooled honesty is often great after enlightenment, and it was mighty in Clare now.” Thomas Hardy, “Tess of the d'Urbervilles” - 1891

“The stupider one is, the clearer one is. Stupidity is brief and artless, while intelligence wriggles and hides itself. Intelligence is a knave, but stupidity is honest and straightforward.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“I only knew what was in my mind, and I wished to express it clearly, so that there could be no mistaking it.” Ulysses S. Grant, “Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant” - 1885

“CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1911

“Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.” Thomas Paine, “Common Sense” - 1776

“Truth, such as is necessary to the regulation of life, is always found where it is honestly sought.” Samuel Johnson, “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia” - 1759

“The sober devil can hide his cloven hoof; but when the devil drinks he loses his cunning and grows honest.” Anthony Trollope, “Phineas Redux” - 1874

“The man who is honest and good ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not.” Marcus Aurelius, “Meditations” - c. 170 - 180

“I would say that today, dishonesty is the rule, and honesty the exception. It could be, statistically, that more people are honest than dishonest, but the few that really control things are not honest, and that tips the balance.” Frank Zappa, “The Real Frank Zappa Book” - 1989

“The lady protests too much, methinks.” William Shakespeare, “Hamlet” - 1623

“Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken;” Jane Austen, “Emma” - 1815

“Do not consider me now as an elegant female, intending to plague you, but as a rational creature, speaking the truth from her heart.” Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice” - 28 January 1813

“Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby” - 1925

“O, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!” Walter Scott, “Marmion” - 1808

Related topics

truth sincerity lies deception love women life mind reason hiding knowledge speech cynicism words courtesy beauty lie virtue hypocrisy guilt

Related authors

William Shakespeare (17)
Jane Austen (2)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2)
William Makepeace Thackeray (1)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
G. K. Chesterton (1)
Confucius (1)
Thomas Hardy (1)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1)
Leo Tolstoy (1)
Ulysses S. Grant (1)
Walter Scott (1)
Ambrose Bierce (1)
Thomas Jefferson (1)
Thomas Paine (1)
Samuel Johnson (1)
Anthony Trollope (1)
Marcus Aurelius (1)
Neil Gaiman (1)
John Steinbeck (1)

Related sources

Hamlet (4)
The Merchant of Venice (3)
Othello (2)
Self-Reliance (2)
All's Well That Ends Well (1)
Henry VI, Part 2 (1)
Richard III (1)
Pride and Prejudice (1)
Vanity Fair (1)
Antony and Cleopatra (1)
The Winter's Tale (1)
Cymbeline (1)
Henry VIII (1)
Timon of Athens (1)
What's Wrong with the World (1)
Analects (1)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1)
The Brothers Karamazov (1)
Anna Karenina (1)
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (1)