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Quotes about honesty

31 verified quotes from 25 writers, c. 475 BC to 1923.

Quotes 1 to 16 of 31, page 1 of 2.

Honesty here covers both telling the truth and not deceiving yourself. Polonius’s advice, to thine own self be true, is the most famous line on the list; Dostoevsky’s Father Zossima warns that a man who lies to himself ends by losing respect for himself and for others.

Emerson defines a friend as a person with whom he may be sincere, Franklin lists sincerity among his thirteen virtues, Thoreau asks for truth rather than love, money or fame, and Wilde’s Algernon points out that the truth is rarely pure and never simple. Each line was matched word for word in the public-domain edition we link.

What “verified” means, and what we leave out: How we verify.

  1. When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it;—this is knowledge

    Confucius, The Analects, c. 475 BCTranslated by James Legge (1861)

    Our note: Confucius to his disciple Zilu (Yu), on what knowing really means.

    Verified in the full text of The Analects on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #3330

  2. The difficulty, my friends, is not to avoid death, but to avoid unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death

    Socrates, in Apology by Plato, c. 399 BCTranslated by Benjamin Jowett (1871)

    Our note: Socrates on why doing wrong is the thing to fear.

    Verified in the full text of Apology on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1656

  3. I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live

    Socrates, in Apology by Plato, c. 399 BCTranslated by Benjamin Jowett (1871)

    Our note: Socrates refuses to plead in the way the court expects.

    Verified in the full text of Apology on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1656

  4. This above all: to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

    Polonius, in Hamlet by William Shakespeare, 1603

    Our note: Polonius's parting advice to his son Laertes, who is leaving for France.

    Verified in the full text of Hamlet on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #100 · Collected in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

    Painted the same decade: Madonna and Child with Saints, Ludovico Carracci, 1607

  8. I grew convinc'd that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life

    Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, 1791

    Our note: Franklin on a conviction he reached as a young man.

    Verified in the full text of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #148

    Painted the same decade: Elizabeth Farren (born about 1759, died 1829), Later Countess of Derby, Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1790

  10. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political

    Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801

    Our note: From Jefferson's list of the principles of government in his 1801 inaugural.

    Verified in the full text of First Inaugural Address on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #56313 · Collected in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 8 (of 9)

    Painted the same decade: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Prince de Bénévent, baron François Gérard, 1808

  13. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour

    Jane Eyre, in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, 1847

    Our note: Jane holding to her principles at the moment they are hardest to keep.

    Verified in the full text of Jane Eyre on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #1260

    Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846

  15. Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

    Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849

    Our note: Written after Thoreau spent a night in jail for refusing to pay a tax he believed supported injustice.

    Verified in the full text of Civil Disobedience on Project Gutenberg · Project Gutenberg ebook #205 · Collected in Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience

    Painted the same decade: The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Delacroix, 1846

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