Laurie Lee - William Wells Brown - William Faulkner - Sam Harris - Tom Flynn - Associated Press - The Godfather III 1990 - For a Few Dollars More 1965 - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Hyde Park on Hudson - Oliver Cromwell - The Young Victoria 2009 - Czeslaw Milosz - Napoleon Bonaparte - Proverbs - George Washington - Noel Coward - Tracy McMillan - Duc de Richelieu - John Ruskin - Wall Street 1987 - William Shakespeare - Virginia Woolf - George R R Martin - Jane Austen - (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies 2015 - Made in Britain 1982 - Killing Eve TV - Yes, Prime Minister TV - Edwin Leibfreed -
She was too honest, too natural for this frightened man; too remote from his tidy laws. She was, after all, a country girl; disordered, hysterical, loving. She was muddled and mischievous as a chimney-jackdaw, she made her nest of rags and jewels, was happy in the sunlight, squawked loudly at danger, pried and was insatiably curious, forgot when to eat or ate all day, and sang when sunsets were red. Laurie Lee, Cider with Rosie
We, as individuals, are fast losing our reputation for honest dealing. Our nation is losing its character. The loss of a firm national character, or the degradation of a nation’s honour, is the inevitable prelude to her destruction. William Wells Brown
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 core of Science is not a mathematical model – it is intellectual honesty. Sam Harris
Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest. Isaac Asimov
What price are we paying for lying to children about Santa Claus? It may be steeper than we think. Because the myth panders to childhood credulity, some have implicated it in the rising incidence of scientific illiteracy among the young. Because it encourages children to build their world views on authority, not on independent thinking, others have related it to the abysmal judgment supposedly displayed by young adults. Can parents honestly be surprised when children do not consult them before experimenting with sex, drugs, crime, or destructive relationships – so soon after their parents have made it clear that children cannot trust them to provide accurate knowledge of the world? A Christian parent put the issue clearly in a letter to the editor:
‘Certainly we can’t get away with lies for seven to ten years and then expect children to ‘outgrow’ Santa ... then suddenly expect them to believe us when we mention high intensity moral issues.
‘Simply being honest with our children, in my opinion, would outweigh anything Santa ever brought’. Tom Flynn, The Trouble With Christmas
A priest who told youngsters that Santa Claus is dead and that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer doesn’t exist was acting on his ‘zeal to emphasize the spiritual dimension’ of Christmas, church officials said Tuesday.
The Diocese of Metuchen issued a statement to clarify comments by the Reverend Romano Ferraro at the St John Vianney Roman Catholic Church in Colonia [New Jersey] on Saturday.
Ferraro also had said that parents who tell their children Santa exists are liars.
‘He tried to kill Santa,’ said Joanne Apolonia, a mother who attended the weekend Mass at the Church with her ‘Confraternity of Christian Doctrine’ class. ‘That’s how the kids took it.’ Associated Press article Christmyth: Priest Says Parents Lie, Santa Dead, reprinted The Arizona Republic 10th December 1986
It’s dangerous to be an honest man. The Godfather III 1990 starring Al Pacino & Andy Garcia & Diane Keaton & Talia Shire & Sofia Coppola & George Hamilton & Bridget Fonda et al, director Francis Ford Coppola, Michael
Isn’t a sheriff supposed to be courageous, loyal and above all honest? For a Few Dollars More [Per Qualche Dollaro in Pui] 1965 starring Clint Eastwood & Lee van Cleef & Gian Maria Volonte & Klaus Kinski & Mario Brega & Luigi Pistilli & Aldo Sambrell & Benito Stefanelli & Panos Papadopulos et al, director Sergio Leone, Man With No Name
I’ve found me an honest man. Must be my lucky day. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s6e15: Honour Among Thieves, Bilby
Why can’t politicians just be honest? Hyde Park on Hudson 2012 starring Bill Murray & Laura Linney & Samuel West & Olivia Colman & Elizabeth Marvel & Olivia Williiams & Elizabeth Wilson & Andrew Havill et al, director Roger Michell, president
A few honest men are better than numbers. Oliver Cromwell, attributed
Even a politician can be honest sometimes. The Young Victoria 2009 starring Emily Blunt & Rupert Friend & Miranda Richardson & Jim Broadbent & Paul Bettany & Mark Strong & Harriet Walter & Paul Bettany & Thomas Kretschmann & Jesper Christensen et al, director Jean-Marc Vallee, Melbourne
In a room where
people unanimously maintain
a conspiracy of silence,
one word of truth
sounds like a pistol shot. Czesław Miłosz
The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man. Napoleon Bonaparte
Honesty is the best policy. Early 17th century proverb
I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man. George Washington
It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. Noël Coward, Blithe Spirit
I feel that as long as you’re honest, you have the opportunity to grow. It’s when you shut down, go into denial, and try to start hiding things from yourself and others, that’s when you lock in certain behaviours and attitudes that keep you stuck. Tracy McMillan, American author
If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. Duc de Richelieu, attributed
Your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy. Both your religion and policy must be based on it. John Ruskin, Time and Tide, 1867
You’re the only honest man I know. Wall Street 1987 starring Michael Douglas & Charlie Sheen & Daryl Hannah & John C McGinley & Terence Stamp & James Karen & Hal Holbrook & Sean Young & James Spader et al, director Oliver Stone, son to father
There’s no trust, no faith, no honesty in men;
All perjured, all forsworn, all naught, dissemblers all. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet III ii 86-87
There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats,
For I am armed so strong in honesty
That they pass by me as the idle wind
Which I respect not. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar IV ii 121-124
Hamlet: Then I would you were so honest a man.
Polonius: Honest, my lord?
Hamlet: Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand. William Shakespeare, Hamlet II ii 117-180
Ha ha! Are you honest? ibid. III i 104, Hamlet
I am myself indifferent honest. But yet I could accuse me of such things, that it were better my mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at by beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. ibid. III i 123-140, Hamlet to Ophelia
A man he is of honesty and trust. William Shakespeare, Othello I iii 284
I should be wise, for honesty’s a fool,
And loses that it works for. ibid. III iii 387-388, Iago
An honest man he is, and hates the slime
That sticks on filthy deeds. ibid. V ii 155-156, Othello
But why should honour outlive honesty? ibid. V ii 152