Honesty Quotes

“Christians don't tell lies they just go to church and sing them.”
― A.W. Tozer

“Love is the great test of the human. The human is tested by our ability to withstand love. Love is so difficult, it is so challenging, it demands of us that we wreck it with ourselves. It demands of us an honesty that few of us could sustain.”
― Junot Díaz

“...when someone is honest and vulnerable, they wring my heart - I want to hug them for being real...”
― John Geddes, A Familiar Rain

“Honest. It's almost always best to go with honest. It means you never have to worry about getting your story straight.”
― Jim Butcher, Cold Days

“Irony is just honesty with the volume cranked up.”
― George Saunders

“We're constantly getting these messages to mind our own business and look the other way if we want to be well liked, to not tell the truth or speak our mind or say anything too intense. Well, I'm telling you here that this approach not only makes you party to other people's crimes against themselves but is a prescription for mediocrity and delusion”
― Kelly Cutrone, If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You

“Honesty is a heart that betrays itself for a dream, a moment, a kiss.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“She laughs an honest laugh... one that puts the fakes on edge and makes them dream of being better.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people. They often reveal much about themselves in a very straightforward way. I am certain that I did. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.”
― Akira Kurosawa, Something Like an Autobiography

“Often people that tell others they are "extremely polite" when the situation calls for tact and bluntness are not actually polite people. Instead, they hide behind the word “polite” because they have low self esteem or hidden agendas. Sadly, they impolitely confuse the hell out of everyone, send mixed signals, which then makes people question their sanity and motives.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“He smiles an honest smile for the first time, and the difference is hard to describe but easy to recognize.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Space Between

“You can’t be another person’s honesty, child, but you can be your own.”
― Jeanette Winterson, Lighthousekeeping

“Work hard, do your best, live the truth, trust yourself, have some fun...and you'll have no regrets.”
― Byrd Baggett

“You can tell people the truth, but they'll never believe you until the event. Until it's too late. In the meantime, the truth will just piss them off and get you in a lot of trouble.

So you just walk home.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor

“What man ain't the honestest cove in his own eyes?" Grote's round face is a bronze moon in the dark. "'Tain't good intentions what paves the road to hell: it's self-justifyin's.”
― David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

“Why would you ever premedicate honesty? To hesitate is to overthink how you feel. A blurted out answer is usually the most genuine.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“A man who will steal for me will steal from me." Theodore Roosevelt, dismissing on the spot one of his best cowhands who was about to claim for his boss an unmarked animal.”
― David G. McCullough, Mornings on Horseback

“The Man of Power is one who presides—
By persuasion. He uses no demeaning words or behavior, does not manipulate others, appeals to the best in everyone, and respects the dignity and
agency of all humankind—men, women, boys, and girls.
By long-suffering. He waits when necessary and listens to the humblest or youngest person. He is tolerant of the ideas of others and avoids quick judgments and anger.
By gentleness. He uses a smile more often than a frown. He is not gruff or loud or frightening; he does not discipline in anger.
By meekness. He is not puffed up, does not dominate conversations, and is willing to conform his will to the will of God.
By love unfeigned. He does not pretend. He is sincere, giving honest love without reservation even when others are unlovable.
By kindness. He practices courtesy and thoughtfulness in little things as well as in the more obvious things. By pure knowledge. He avoids half-truths and seeks to be empathetic.
Without hypocrisy. He practices the principles he teaches. He knows he is not always right and is willing to admit his mistakes and say ‘I’m sorry.'
Without guile. He is not sly or crafty in his dealings with others, but is honest and authentic when describing his feelings.”
― H. Burke Peterson

“The less you look to others,
the more you find in yourself.
What have you found in yourself.”
― Ron W. Rathbun

“I lay my head on his chest and listen to his heart beating, solid and sure.....he reads me so well. He's known about my emotional empathy since we were children. Nothing disturbs him...Few can lie to me...

I don't know the truth, only that there is a lie. It takes a scrupulously honest man to love me. That's my Sean. We learned to trust each other completely before we were old enough to have learned suspicion.”
― Karen Marie Moning, Iced

“Teach honesty by all means - you do know what it is, don't you?”
― Idries Shah, Reflections

“You're a poster boy for sincerity. You have all the guile of a lamb.”
― Dean Koontz, Forever Odd

“I lie without a mask, thus I am an honest man.”
― Lionel Suggs

“Don’t force your gifts: if you are a rascal, live like one; if you are half honest, be half honest; if you are completely honest, live absolutely honestly.”
― Pierre Ceresole, For Peace and Truth: From the Note-books of Pierre Ceresole

“Months later, when I rarely saw the Angels, I still had the legacy of the big machine -- four hundred pounds of chrome and deep red noise to take out on the Coast Highway and cut loose at three in the morning, when all the cops were lurking over on 101. My first crash had wrecked the bike completely and it took several months to have it rebuilt. After that I decided to ride it differently: I would stop pushing my luck on curves, always wear a helmet and try to keep within range of the nearest speed limit ... my insurance had already been canceled and my driver's license was hanging by a thread.

So it was always at night, like a werewolf, that I would take the thing out for an honest run down the coast. I would start in Golden Gate Park, thinking only to run a few long curves to clear my head ... but in a matter of minutes I'd be out at the beach with the sound of the engine in my ears, the surf booming up on the sea wall and a fine empty road stretching all the way down to Santa Cruz ... not even a gas station in the whole seventy miles; the only public light along the way is an all-night diner down around Rockaway Beach.

There was no helmet on those nights, no speed limit, and no cooling it down on the curves. The momentary freedom of the park was like the one unlucky drink that shoves a wavering alcoholic off the wagon. I would come out of the park near the soccer field and pause for a moment at the stop sign, wondering if I knew anyone parked out there on the midnight humping strip.”
― Hunter S. Thompson

“Politics is the art of saying well that which may or may not be true.”
― Orrin Woodward

“I suppose if we gain anything from this unsought experience it will be an appreciation for honesty- frankness on the part of our politicians, our friends, our loves, ourselves. No more liars in public places. (And the bed and the bar are, in their way, as public as the floor of Congress.)”
― Tim O'Brien, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home

“Wealth is a relational barrier. It keeps us from having open relationships.”
― Randy Alcorn, Money, Possessions, and Eternity: A Comprehensive Guide to What the Bible Says about Financial Stewardship, Generosity, Materialism, Retirement, Financial Planning, Gambling, Debt, and More

“Vind je het goed als ik jou gebruik om mijn leven aan diggelen te gooien?”
― Tim Krabbé, Een tafel vol vlinders

“Erinnern, das heißt, eines Geschehens so ehrlich und rein zu gedenken, daß es zu einem Teil des eigenen Innern wird. Das stellt große Anforderungen an unsere Wahrhaftigkeit."

[Ansprache am 8. Mai 1985 in der Gedenkstunde im Plenarsaal des Deutschen Bundestages]”
― Richard von Weizsäcker