Honesty
Moral virtue of truthfulness and integrity.
Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons
Honesty is a facet of moral character associated with positive and virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness, including the absence of lying, cheating, and theft. It also involves being trustworthy, loyal, fair, and sincere. A reputation for honesty is denoted by terms like reputability and trustworthiness, and honesty about future conduct is called accountability, reliability, dependability, or conscientiousness.
- field
- Moral character, ethics
- known_for
- Being a core moral virtue; associated with integrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness
Lore & Background
Honesty is valued in many ethnic and religious cultures. The proverb 'Honesty is the best policy' is attributed to Edwin Sandys, and Thomas Jefferson wrote that 'Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.' April 30 is national Honesty Day in the United States. William Shakespeare described honesty as an attribute people leave behind, writing that 'no legacy is so rich as honesty' in 'All's Well that Ends Well.'
Reader's Guide
Honesty has been discussed by various thinkers. Tolstoy considered honesty revolutionary, stating that no feats of heroism are needed for great changes, only that each individual should say what they really feel or think. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Václav Havel agreed; Havel wrote that living within the truth has a political dimension, as the main pillar of a system of lies is threatened by living the truth. The 18th-century philosopher William Wollaston argued that all religion reduces to ethics and all ethics reduces to honesty. Immanuel Kant made the duty of honesty a core example of his ethical theories. However, some have noted that too much honesty might be seen as undisciplined openness, and research found that honesty can lead to interpersonal harm because people avoid information about how their honest behavior affects others.
Did You Know?
- The proverb 'Honesty is the best policy' is attributed to Edwin Sandys.
- Thomas Jefferson wrote that 'Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.'
- April 30 is national Honesty Day in the United States.
- William Shakespeare wrote 'no legacy is so rich as honesty' in 'All's Well that Ends Well.'
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