These lies are like the father that begets them; gross as a mountain, open, palpable.
Honesty Quotes
By count, Shakespeare is far ahead of the next writers, Solomon, George Herbert and Mark Twain. The sourced lines lean toward sincerity, not honesty as such, and they are not what a poster would use. Wilde, in The Critic as Artist (1891), says a little sincerity is a dangerous thing and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. Martin Luther King Jr., in Strength to Love (1963), says nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Shaw’s remark that there is no love sincerer than the love of food appears here and under Food.
The only flagged entry is “It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver,” credited to Machiavelli and marked misattributed.
Most quoted on honesty:
There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination.
Lying is the same as alcoholism. Liars prevaricate even on their deathbeds.
There is a demand in these days for men who can make wrong conduct appear right.
But that he wrought so high the specious tale,
As manifested plainly 'twas a lie.
When we risk no contradiction,
It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction.
Bread gained by deceit tastes good to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.
Hateful to me as are the gates of hell,
Is he who, hiding one thing in his heart,
Utters another.
He who says that there is no such thing as an honest man is himself a knave.
Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe.