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Honesty quotes

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“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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

“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

“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

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

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

“great robbers always resemble honest folks. Fellows who have rascally faces have only one course to take, and that is to remain honest; otherwise they would be arrested off-hand. ” Jules Verne, Around the World in 80 Days

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

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

“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

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

“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

“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

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

“Be anything but a coward, a pretender, an emotional crook, a whore: I'd rather have cancer than a dishonest heart.” Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's

“Only lies offend me, never honest counsel.” George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

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

“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

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

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

“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

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

“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

“when you find that people are not telling you the truth—look out!” Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

“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

“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

“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

“You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Too much truth confuses the facts. Too much honesty makes you sound insincere.” Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

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

“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

“People often think I'm a faker, but I'm usually honest, in a certain way—in such a way that often nobody believes me!” Richard Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

“It is not possible to know how far the influence of any amiable honest-hearted duty-doing man flies out into the world” Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

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

“It must require bravery to be honest all the time.” Veronica Roth, Divergent

Related topics

deception lies love women hypocrisy sincerity reason virtue truth lie hiding beauty speech life words knowledge lying good intelligence government

Related authors

Ulysses S. Grant (1)
William Shakespeare (17)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2)
Jane Austen (2)
G. K. Chesterton (1)
Thomas Jefferson (1)
Emily Brontë (1)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1)
Frank Zappa (1)
Leo Tolstoy (1)
Confucius (1)
Thomas Paine (1)
John Steinbeck (1)
George R. R. Martin (1)
Neil Gaiman (1)
Charles Dickens (1)
Thomas Hardy (1)
William Makepeace Thackeray (1)
Ambrose Bierce (1)

Related sources

Antony and Cleopatra (1)
Hamlet (4)
All's Well That Ends Well (1)
The Merchant of Venice (3)
Othello (2)
Self-Reliance (2)
What's Wrong with the World (1)
Henry VIII (1)
Henry VI, Part 2 (1)
Cymbeline (1)
Richard III (1)
Timon of Athens (1)
The Winter's Tale (1)
Anna Karenina (1)
The Real Frank Zappa Book (1)
The Devil's Dictionary (1)
Wuthering Heights (1)
Analects (1)
Pride and Prejudice (1)
The Brothers Karamazov (1)