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HONESTY & HONOR

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HONESTY

see: "CANDOR"
see: "SINCERITY"
see "CHARACTER" for other related links


He who conceals a useful truth is equally guilty with
the propagator of an injurious falsehood.
--Augustine, St. of Hippo (354—430)
Christian theologian and bishop of Hippo in
Roman Africa [396—430].

He who says there is no such thing as an honest
man, you may be sure is himself a knave.
--George Berkeley (1685—1753)
Anglo-Irish philosopher.
_Maxims Concerning Patriotism_

From scenes like these, old Scotia's grandeur springs,
That makes her lov'd at home, revered abroad:
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,
'An honest man's the noblest work of God.
--Robert Burns (1759—1796)
Scottish poet and songwriter.
"The Cotter's Saturday Night" [1786], st. 19

But of all plagues, Good Heaven, they wrath can send,
Save, save, Oh, save me from thy candid friend!
--George Canning (1770—1827)
British statesman; prime minister [1827].

-

Honesty's the best policy.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_ [1605—1615]
Pt. 2 [1615], bk. 3, ch. 33


An honest man's word is as
good as his bond.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_ [1605—1615]
Pt. 2 [1615], bk. 3, ch. 34.

-

It's amazing how many people are shocked by
honesty and how few by deceit.
--Noλl Coward (1899—1973)
English playwright, actor, and composer.

A few honest men are better than numbers.
--Oliver Cromwell (1599—1658)
English soldier and statesman;
Lord Protector from 1653.
Letter to Sir W. Spring [September 1643].

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing
its best, night and day, to make you everybody else
means to fight the hardest battle which any human
being can fight; and never stop fighting.
--E.E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894—1962)
American poet.

To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached,
is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where
I have opened my heart.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
_Master Humphrey's Clock_

I pretind ivry man is honest, and I believe
none iv them ar-re. In that way I keep me
friends an' save me money.
--Finley Peter Dunne (1867—1936)
American journalist and humorist.
"The Christmas Spirit"
_American Magazine_ [December 1906]

Resolved, never to do anything which I should
be afraid to do if it were the last hour of
my life.
--Jonathan Edwards (1703—1758)
American philosopher and preacher.

Don't place too much confidence in the man who
boasts of being as honest as the day is long.
Wait until you meet him at night.
--Robert C. Edwards

You Can't Cheat an Honest Man.
--W. C. Fields [William Claude Dukenfield]
(1880—1946) American vaudeville star and film actor.
A favorite saying and title of one of his films,
quoted in Robert Lewis Taylor
_W.C. Fields, His Follies and Fortunes [1949].

I would give no thought of what the world might say
of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the
reputation of an honest man.
--Sam Houston (1793—1863)
President of the Republic of Texas.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].

It has always been the best policy to speak the truth —
unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.
--Jerome K Jerome (1859—1927)
English novelist and playwright.
In "The Idler" [February 1892].

-

Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display
qualities which he does not possess, and to gain applause
which he cannot keep.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_The Rambler_ (English twice-weekly journal 1750-1752), #189


If he does really think that there is no distinction between
virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses, let
us count our spoons.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791]
"14 July 1773".

& see:

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster
we counted our spoons.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_The Conduct of Life_ [1860] "Worship"

-

Lie to a liar, for lies are his coin; Steal from a thief,
for that is easy; lay a trap for a trickster and catch him
at first attempt, but beware of an honest man.
--old Arab proverb, quoted in short story "Time of Terror",
_Off the Mangrove Coast_, Louis L'Amour (1908—1988).

He who, when called upon to speak a disagreeable truth, tells
it boldly and has done, is both bolder and milder than he who
nibbles in a low voice and never ceases nibbling.
--Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741—1801)
Swiss writer, Protestant pastor, and founder of physiognomics.

He who walks straight rarely falls.
--Leonardo da Vinci (1452—1519)
Florentine painter, sculptor, musician, and scientist.
_The Notebooks_ [1508—1518]

^

Detlev von Liliencron (1844—1909)
German lyric poet and novelist.

Liliencron was often in dire financial straits.
One of his creditors stopped him in the street
and demanded payment. 'Sorry, but I have no
money, said Liliencron. 'Please be patient.'

'But that's what you said four weeks ago.'

'Well,' said Liliencron triumphantly, haven't
I kept my word?'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

honesty is a good
thing but
it is not profitable to
its possessor
unless it is
kept under control.
--Don Marquis (1878—1937)
American poet and journalist.
_archys life of mehitabel_ [1933]

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing.
If you can fake that, you've got it made.
--Groucho [Julius Henry] Marx (1895—1977)
American film comedian.

-

kap posts to USENET about honesty:

When we moved out to Las Vegas in 1989 we had a procession of one
U-Haul truck and two cars. Normally we would stop at nightfall but one
evening we decided to go a little further. We had a plan if anyone got
a flat tire or whatever - flash your headlights and everyone would stop.
So I was in the truck with my son following and, bringing up the rear,
my daughter. My daughter's car broke and she flashed her headlights
and, naturally, no one was looking.

About 20 miles later my son pulls up next to us and waves frantically.
We stopped there while he went back to look for her.

Fortunately he found her because losing our daughter would have ruined
the whole trip and we would have had to move back to New York.

So here we were in the middle of Tennessee at night with nowhere to
stay and a broken car. We finally found a motel but the next morning
the car was still broken and there were no gas stations nearby.
Finally we found a house with a sign outside, "Cars fixed" or something
to that effect. We knew the fellow would take us to the cleaners (if he
didn't kill us and roast us first) but, having no other option, we took a
chance. Turns out the gas filter was busted and after working on the
car for over an hour he asks, "Is $12 okay?"

First time in my life I wanted to kiss a Tennessee woodsman.

-

When riches and virtue are placed together in the
scales of the balance, the one always rises while
the other falls.
--Plato (427?—347 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
_The Republic_

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An honest man's the noblest work of God.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
"An Essay on Man" [1733] Epistle 4, l. 247


There is but one way I know of conversing safely with
all men; that is, not by concealing what we say or do,
but by saying or doing nothing that deserves to be
concealed.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.

-

People think that a liar gains a victory over his
victim. What I've learned is that a lie is an act
of self-abdication, because one surrenders one's
reality to the person to whom one lies, making that
person one's master, condemning oneself from then
on to faking the sort of reality that person's view
requires to be faked. And if one gains the immediate
purpose of the lie—the price one pays is the
destruction of that which the gain was intended to
serve. The man who lies to the world, is the world's
slave from then on.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
_Atlas Shrugged_ [1957]

It is but shaping the bribe to the
taste, and every one has his price.
--Samuel Richardson (1689—1761)
English novelist.

If you give me six lines written by the most honest
man, I will find something in them to hang him.
--Cardinal de Richelieu (1585—1642)
French Cardinal, Duke, and politician.

I would rather be the man who bought the
Brooklyn Bridge than the man who sold it.
--Will Rogers [William Penn Adair Rogers] (1879—1935)
American humorist and actor.

-

Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite
to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest
we have no right to keep him in public life, it matters not
how brilliant his capacity, it hardly matters how great his
power of doing good service on certain lines may be.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
_The Strenuous Life_ [1900]


The weakling and the coward cannot be saved by honesty
alone; but without honesty, the brave and able man is
merely a civic wild beast who should be hunted down by
every lover of righteousness. No man who is corrupt,
no man who condones corruption in others, can possibly
do his duty by the community.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
"The Eighth and Ninth Commandments in Politics"
_Outlook_ [12 May 1900]

-

This above all, to thine own self be true,
And it must follow as the night the day
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Hamlet_ [1601], I, iii, 78

The only disadvantage of an honest heart is credulity.
--Sir Philip Sidney (1554—1586)
English soldier, poet, and courtier.

Honesty has a beautiful and refreshing simplicity
about it. No ulterior motives. No hidden meanings.
An absence of hypocrisy, duplicity, political games,
and verbal superficiality. As honesty and real
integrity characterize our lives, there will be no
need to manipulate others.
--Charles R. Swindoll (1934— )
American evanegelical Christian pastor.

-

You've got to be able to count on a man's word, and if
you can't, forget it. ... I've had experience with the
other kind as well, and that's the worst thing there is.
A liar in public life is a lot more dangerous than a full,
paid up Communist, and I don't care who he is.
--Harry S. Truman (1884—1972)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945—1953].


No professional liberal is intellectually honest.
That's a real indictment - but true as the Ten
Commandments. Professional liberals aren't
familiar with the Ten Commandments or the
Sermon on the Mount.
--Harry S. Truman (1884—1972)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945—1953].
In Margaret Truman _Harry S. Truman_ [1973] p. 8.

-

If you tell the truth you don't have to
remember anything.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.

Every man has his price.
--Robert Walpole (1676—1745)
English Whig statesman.

I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough
to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles,
the character of an honest man.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the
colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783]
and first president of the United States [1789—1797].

Honesty is the best policy; but he who is
governed by that maxim is not an honest
man.
--Richard Whately (1787—1863)
English philosopher and theologian.
_Apophthegms_ [1854]

You may choose your word like a connoisseur,
And polish it up with art;
But the word that sways, and stirs, and stays,
Is the word that comes from the heart.
--Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850—1919)
American author and poet.
_New Thought Pastels_ [1906]

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and
a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.
"Intentions" [1891]

-----

dinkum (noun) ['ding-kκm] (Australian)
Genuine, honest person or thing.
Fair dinkum is "the real stuff, the truth."

mensch (noun) ['mench]
Yiddish
A caring, decent and honorable person who can
be trusted and who always tries to do the right
thing.

probity (noun) ['pro-bκ-ti]
Honesty, integrity, moral perfection



HONOR

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see "CHARACTER" for related links


The religious man fears, the man of honor
scorns, to do an ill action.
--Joseph Addison (1672—1719)
English essayist, poet, and dramatist.

There are circumstances which have to do with simple
human honor. No matter the risk. To resist and not
surrender.
--Antonin Artaud (1896—1948)
French playwright, actor, and director.

-

Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where
it will. And outlive the bastards.
--Lois McMaster Bujold (1949— )
American science fiction author.
_A Civil Campaign_


Reputation is what other people know about you.
Honor is what you know about yourself.
--Lois McMaster Bujold (1949— )
American science fiction author.

-

-

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never,
never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—
never give in except to convictions of honor and
good sense.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].


The only guide to a man is his conscience, the only
shield to his memory is the rectitude and the sincerity
of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through
life without this shield, because we are so often
mocked by the failure of our hopes and the
upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield,
however the fates may play, we march always in
the ranks of honour.
--Part of Winston Churchill's eulogy for
Neville Chamberlain, (1869—1940)
_Their Finest Hour_, p. 486

-

Ability without honor is useless.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.

Nothing so completely baffles one who is full of trick
and duplicity himself, than straightforward and simple
integrity in another.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words;
Addressed to Those Who Think_ [1820]

To know what is right and not do it is
the worst cowardice.
--Confucius (551—479 B.C.)
K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher.
_Analects_, c. 500BC

The louder he talked of his honor, the
faster we counted our spoons.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_The Conduct of Life_ [1860], "Worship"

A man of honor should never forget what
he is because he sees what others are.
--Baltasar Graciαn (1601—1658)
Spanish Jesuit philosopher.
_The Art of Worldly Wisdom_ [1647]

Weep not for little Leonie
Abducted by a French Marquis!
Though loss of honor was a wrench,
Just think how it's improved her French.
--Harry Graham (1874—1936)
British writer and journalist.

I want to go out with my head erect,
I want to deserve all men's respect;
But here in this struggle for fame and pelf,
I want to be able to like myself.
I don't want to think as I come and go
That I'm bluster and bluff and empty show.
--Edgar Guest (1881—1959)
American poet.
"Myself"

No one can disgrace us but ourselves.
--Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819—1881)
American novelist, poet, and editor
of "Scribner’s Magazine."

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands
in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times
of challenge and controversy.
--Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968)
American civil rights leader.

Perfect valor is doing without witnesses what one
would be capable of doing in front of everybody.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Maxims [1678], Maxim 216

-

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am
not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light
that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right,
stand with him while he is right, and part with him when
he goes wrong.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].


The probability that we may fail in the struggle
ought not to deter us from the support of a cause
we believe to be just.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].

-

He has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct
though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous
to do so.
--Walter Lippmann (1889—1974)
American journalist.
_A Preface to Morals_ [1929]

-

If it is not right, do not do it; if
it is not true, do not say it.
--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180)
Roman emperor [161—180] and Stoic philosopher.


Never esteem anything as of advantage to
you that will make you break your word or
lose your self-respect.
--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180)
Roman emperor [161—180] and Stoic philosopher.
_Meditations_, Book III, Number 7

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The difference between a moral man and a man of honor
is that the latter regrets a discreditable act; even
when it has worked and he has not been caught.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.

Never do anything, concerning the
rectitude of which you have a doubt.
--Pliny the Younger or Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (62—c.115)
Roman senator and author of a famous collection of letters.

You cannot believe in honor until you have achieved
it. Better keep yourself clean and bright: you are the
window through which you must see the world.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.]
_The Revolutionist's Handbook_ [1905]

What is left when honor is lost?
--Publilius Syrus (85—43 B.C.)
Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave.
_Maxims_

In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do
is the right thing to do. The worst thing you can
do is nothing.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].

Only a few held their honor dearer than gold.
--Sallust [Gaius Sallustius Crispus] (c. 86BC—35/34 BC)
Roman historian.
_The Jugurthine War_ [c. 41—40 B.C.]
{Referring to the corruptibility of Roman upper classes.}

Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; take
honour from me, and my life is done.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Richard II_ [1595]

The shortest and surest way to live with honor in
the world, is to be in reality what we would appear
to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen
themselves by the practice and experience of them.
--Socrates (470?—399 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.

Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.
--Sophocles (496?—406 B.C.)
Greek dramatist.

He whose honor depends on the mob must day
by day strive with the greatest anxiety, act and
scheme in order to retain his reputation. For the
mob is varied and inconstant, and therefore if
a reputation is not carefully preserved it dies
quickly.
--Benedict de Spinoza (1632—1677)
Dutch-Jewish philosopher, the foremost exponent
of 17th century Rationalism.
_Ethics_ [1677] pt. III

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.

Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and
what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't.
You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your
conviction is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor,
both to yourself and your country, let men label you as
they may.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye_

-

She offered her honor.
He honored her offer.
And all night long it
was honor and offer.
--anon.


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