Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

- Henry David Thoreau

It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not.

- Andre Gide

In reality, humility means nothing other than complete honesty about yourself.

- William Countryman

All intimacy is rare -- that's what makes it precious. And it involves the revelation of one's self and the loving gaze upon another's true self (no makeup, no fancy car, no defensive charm, no seduction) -- that's what makes it so damn hard. Intimacy requires honesty and kindness in almost equal measure (a little more kindness, I think), trust and trustworthiness, forgiveness and the capacity to be forgiven . . . It's more than worth it -- just don't let them tell you it's bilss.

- Amy Bloom

I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.

- Harry S Truman

I have my values, and if you don't like them, well I've got some others.

- Mark Twain

Honesty is not only the best policy, it is rare enough today to make you pleasantly conspicuous.

- Charlie Brower

A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt to be dangerous.

- Alfred Adler

There is always a way to be honest without being brutal.

- Arthur Dobrin

Of all the feats of skill, the most difficult is that of being honest.

- Marie de Beausacq

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

Dare to be honest and fear no labor.

- Robert Burns

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

- Thomas Jefferson

Early in life, I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose honest arrogance and have seen no occasion to change.

- Frank Lloyd Wright

Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition.

- Freeman Thomas

Don't believe your friends when they ask you to be honest with them. All they really want is to be maintained in the good opinion they have of themselves.

- Albert Camus



The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.

- John Gardner



Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, -- entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigour, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; -- freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, -- these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.

- Thomas Jefferson



With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.

- Clarence Darrow



Anticipate charity by preventing poverty; assist the reduced fellow man, either by a considerable gift or a sum of money or by teaching him a trade or by putting him in the way of business so that he may earn an honest livelihood and not be forced to the dreadful alternative of holding out his hand for charity. This is the highest step and summit of charity's golden ladder.

- Maimonides



There is more to American politics than fat cats and their political friends. There are serious-minded liberals who fight the good fight on many issues, ecologically oriented politicians who remain true to their cause, and honest people of every political stripe who are not beholden to any wealthy people. But there are not enough of them, and they are often worn down by the constant pressure from lobbyists, lawyers and conventional politicians.

- G. William Domhoff



We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.

- Robert Louis Stevenson