Honesty

There is no well-defined boundary between honesty and dishonesty. The frontiers of one blend with the outside limits of the other, and he who attempts to tread this dangerous ground may be sometimes in one domain and sometimes in the other. – O. Henry, Rolling Stones, 1912

When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. – Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, 2003

Occasionally he stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened. – Winston Churchill, “ear-witness” quoting c.1936 about Stanley Baldwi

If you want to ruin the truth, stretch it. – Author Unknown

The truth is more important than the facts. – Frank Lloyd Wright

Like all valuable commodities, truth is often counterfeited. – James Cardinal Gibbons

Respect for the truth is an acquired taste. – Mark Van Doren, Liberal Education, 1943

Always telling the truth is no doubt better than always lying, although equally pathological. – Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

If falsehood, like truth, had but one face, we would be more on equal terms. For we would consider the contrary of what the liar said to be certain. But the opposite of truth has a hundred thousand faces and an infinite field. – Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

It is not without good reason said, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying. – Michel de Montaigne, translated from French

People who are brutally honest get more satisfaction out of the brutality than out of the honesty. – Richard J. Needham

Beware of the half truth. You may have gotten hold of the wrong half. – Author Unknown

When truth is divided, errors multiply. – Eli Siegel, Damned Welcome

A little candor never leaves me. It is what protects me. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin