Profoundly inspirational honesty quotes will challenge the way you think, and help guide you through any life experience.
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Most Famous Honesty Quotes
Honesty saves everyone’s time. – Unknown
Honesty is the fastest way to prevent a mistake from turning into a failure. – James Altucher
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. – Thomas Jefferson
A clear conscience is more valuable than wealth. – Tagalog
A fair exchange is no robbery. – Scottish Proverb
Honesty is a very expensive gift. Don’t expect it from cheap people. – Warren Buffett
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway. – Mother Teresa
The first step is to be honest, and then to be noble. – Winston Churchill
Truth never damages a cause that is just. – Mahatma Gandhi
A friend’s eye is a good mirror. – Gaelic
A loan though old is not a gift. – Hungarian
The greatest truth is honesty, and the greatest falsehood is dishonesty. – Abu Bakr RA
Be honest in your life it creates positive energy. – Fathima Bibi Joosab
Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones. – John Lennon
I believe fundamental honesty is the keystone of business. – Harvey S. Firestone
A man who never made a mistake, never made anything. – Unknown
When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable. – Jess C. Scott
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. – Ben Franklin
The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty. – Zig Ziglar
Honesty is of God and dishonesty of the devil; the devil was a liar from the beginning. – Joseph B. Wirthlin
Speak with honesty, think with sincerity, and act with integrity. – Unknown
Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize? – Marcus Aurelius
Avoid dishonest gain: no price can recompence the pangs of vice. – Ben Franklin
Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion. – Julius Caesar
Dally not with other folk’s spouses or money. – Ben Franklin
The elegance of honesty needs no adornment. – Mary Browne
Honesty is a very expensive gift, Don’t expect it from cheap people. – Warren Buffett
Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones. – John Lennon
I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won’t tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn’t change the fact that they were upset. And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn’t really change the fact that you have what you have. – Stephen Chbosky
The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love, and loyalty. – Zig Ziglar
Don’t pretend to be something you aren’t. – Aesop
Don’t take any wooden nickels. – American
Following the path of least resistence is what makes both men and rivers crooked. – Unknown
The first step toward greatness is to be honest. – Proverb
If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people. – Virginia Woolf
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. – Albert Einstein
Honesty is the rarest wealth anyone can possess, and yet all the honesty in the world ain’t lawful tender for a loaf of bread. – Josh Billings
No legacy is so rich as honesty. – William Shakespeare
Honesty is the best policy. – Benjamin Franklin
Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. – Paulo Coelho
True honesty is hard. Throughout my career, I’ve faced moments where I’ve needed to take an honest look at myself and face some very uncomfortable realities. – Les Brown
I admire honesty more than any other trait. – Jerry Reinsdorf
Honesty and loyalty are key. – Taylor Lautner
No matter what you do, stand up for who you are and be honest. – Bryant McGill
From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. – Jesus Christ
Half the truth is often a whole lie. – Ben Franklin
He that first cries out “stop thief” is often he that has stolen the treasure. – William Congreve
Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving. – James E. Faust
Make yourself an honest man. – Thomas Carlyle
Simple honesty of purpose in a man goes a long way in life, if founded on a just estimate of himself and a steady obedience to the rule he knows and feels to be right. – Samuel Smiles
It takes strength and courage to admit the truth. – Rick Riordan
Honest people don’t hide their deeds. – Emily Brontë
Each time you are honest and conduct yourself with honesty, a success force will drive you toward greater success. Each time you lie, even with a little white lie, there are strong forces pushing you toward failure. – Joseph Sugarman
He that steals an egg will steal an ox. – George Herbert
And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too. – Khaled Hosseini
Honesty is the best policy. – Aesop
It is better to suffer for truth than to prosper by falsehood. – Danish
Honesty has a power that very few people can handle. – Steven Aitchison
The establishment of any relationship, both individual and expert is honesty. – Alexander Mejia
Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people. – Spencer Johnson
Friends are honest with each other. Even if the truth hurts.-Maggie – Sarah Dessen
Honesty prospers in every condition of life. – Friedrich Schiller
Let’s tell the truth to people. When people ask, ‘How are you?’ have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully. You must know, however, that people will start avoiding you because, they, too, have knees that pain them and heads that hurt and they don’t want to know about yours. But think of it this way: If people avoid you, you will have more time to meditate and do fine research on a cure for whatever truly afflicts you. – Maya Angelou
Keep conscience clear, then never fear. – Ben Franklin
Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee. – George Chapman
Let’s get things straight. – Unknown
Be honest, brutally honest. – Lauryn Hill
I have survived. I am here. Confused, screwed up, but here. So, how can I find my way? Is there a chain saw of the soul, an ax I can take to my memories or fears? – Laurie Halse
Never hide things from hardcore thinkers. They get more aggravated, more provoked by confusion than the most painful truths. – Criss Jami
Honesty is one of the most important parts of any marriage. – Amanda Thompson
Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly. – Franz Kafka
It’s difficult to honest with others when you continue lying to yourself. – Carlos Wallace
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
We have no relationship without honesty. – by Claude – Emily Giffin
I felt like an animal, and animals don’t know sin, do they? – Jess C. Scott
Just be honest with yourself. That opens the door. – Vernon Howard
Leadership is intelligence, honesty, and doing the right thing. – Julie Zeilinger
One honest relationship can be more productive than fistfuls of business cards. – Susan Cain
I’d never managed anyone before, so I don’t have a lot of experience. But I’m lucky – I have a lot of team members who have a really honest relationship with me. – Ben Silbermann
Honesty doesn’t always pay, but dishonesty always costs. – Michael Josephson
Making money selling manure is better than losing money selling musk. – Egyptian
No legacy is as rich as honesty. – Unknown
You ask me what forces me to speak? a strange thing; my conscience. – Victor Hugo
Pay what you owe and what you’re worth you’ll know. – Ben Franklin
Possession is nine tenths of the law. – Unknown
People all over the nation are starved for honesty and common sense. – Ben Carson
Be honest, for God is the helper of honest people. Avoid telling lies since it will ruin your faith. Know that honest people are on the verge of nobility and honor, while liars are on the verge of collapse and destruction. – Imam Ali RA
Our lives improve only when we take chances – and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves. – Walter Anderson
It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. – Noël Coward
All I’m ever looking for in my work in general is honesty and truth and people being real to themselves. – O Tillett Wright
Be a reflection of what you’d like to see in others. If you want love, give love, if you want honesty, give honesty, if you want respect, give respect. You get in return, what you give. – Unknown
I’m not rude, I’m honest. – Unknown
Honesty pays, but it don’t seem to pay enough to suit some people. – Frank McKinney
If you tell the truth, you don’t need a long memory. – Jesse Ventura
This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy. – Susan Polis Schutz
Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it. – George R.R. Martin
Honest hearts produce honest actions. – Brigham Young
An honest man’s word is as good as his bond. – Unknown
Be honest with the people who love you. They deserve your honesty. – Unknown
Always tell the truth. That way you don’t have to remember what you said. – Mark Twain
The best thing about telling the truth is…you don’t have to remember what you said!Unknown, thanks to Georgie Bee
The contented person can never be ruined. – Chinese
if you wanted to do something absolutely honest, something true, it always turned out to be a thing that had to be done alone. – Richard Yates
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. – Albert Einstein
Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world. – Thomas Carlyle
Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it. – Mark Twain
To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand. – William Shakespeare
To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful. – Edward R. Murrow
To tell the truth is very difficult, and young people are rarely capable of it. – Leo Tolstoy
Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth. – William Faulkner
The sting of a reproach is the truth of it. – Ben Franklin
When a thief kisses you, count your teeth. – Yiddish
The answer is good things only happen to you if you’re good. Good? Honest is more what I mean… Be anything but a coward, a pretender, an emotional crook, a whore: I’d rather have cancer than a dishonest heart. – Truman Capote
You can fool people some of the time, but you can’t fool them all of the time. – Aesop
The real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong. – Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pretty much all the honest truth telling in the world is done by children. – Oliver Wendell
To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education. – John Ruskin
The truth needs so little rehearsal. – Barbara Kingsolver
My parents taught me about the importance of qualities like kindness, respect, and honesty, and I realize how central values like these have been throughout my life. – Kate Middleton
It is better to suffer for truth than to prosper by falsehood. – Danish
Living with integrity means: Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships. Asking for what you want and need from others. Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension. Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values. Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe. – Barbara De Angelis
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
You don’t always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too. – Anne Lamott
Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery. – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Though I am not naturally honest, I am sometimes so by chance. – William Shakespeare
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. – William James
As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself. Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility. – Nelson Mandela
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend. – Henry David Thoreau
To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable; to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength. – Criss Jami
Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking… – Leo Tolstoy
An honest man is believed without an oath, for his reputation swears for him. – Eliza Cook
Last night I was seriously considering whether I was a bisexual or not but I don’t think so though I’m not sure if I’d like to be and argh I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, if you like a person, you like the person, not their genitals. – Jess C Scott
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
You cannot con an honest man. – Ally Carter
