Honesty
From 16Guidelines
What is Honesty?
Honesty is living with integrity and strength. It can mean simple truth telling, but it has great resonance when we consider how honest we are with ourselves. Do we buy into self-delusion and perhaps cheat ourselves of integrity by lying to ourselves and denying a reality?
Honesty goes very well with kindness. A truth spoken with kindness and motivated by love will have a very different result than a truth spoken with malice and anger. Honesty does not just mean telling the truth, it can mean being fair and honourable in our dealings with people, money and possessions. It can also mean being reasonable with others' expectations, in simple, practical things such as deadlines at work or being able to meet up with people. Such things may be conisdered 'harmless dishonesty' but it can leave us feeling uneasy if we feel we have not been honest with our time and energy.
Dishonesty can cause disappointment and pain, so to behave honestly may take courage. When others are honest with us or indeed when we have been truthful with others it can feel as if a weight has been lifted. This gives us great peace of mind and nurtures our inner strength.
Quotes
"Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.”
- Spencer Johnson
"Almost any difficulty will move in the face of honesty. When I am honest I never feel stupid. And when I am honest I am automatically humble."
- Hugh Prather
"To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education."
- John Ruskin
"We tell lies when we are afraid... afraid of what we don't know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger."
- Tad Williams
"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."
- Mark Twain
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