#Article (Archive)

The value of honesty

Aug 10, 2010, 12:23 PM

In the broadest sense, honesty is the cornerstone of all success, without which confidence and ability to perform shall cease to exist. Of all the feat of skills, the most difficult is that of being honest, but it is the highest thing that one may safeguard at all times.

It pays a lot, but it doesn't seem to pay enough to suit some people. One can say honesty is the most valuable thing we have; so we should always try to preserve it. The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom are the fundamental pillars of society.

It has been said that honesty is one of the basic elements that make a person a paragon of virtue. As Thomas Carlyle put it, "Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world,"  while Josiah William Gitt, said "humanity's most valuable assets have been the non-conformists."

"Were it not for the non-conformists, he who refuses to be satisfied to go along with the continuance of things as they are, and insists upon attempting to find new ways of bettering things, the world would have known little progress indeed."

A life lived with uprightness, decency and morality - even if it lacks the frills of fame and fortune, is a shining star in whose light others may follow in years to come.

Honest differences are a healthy sign of progress. The life of the nation is said to be secured, only if a nation is honest, truthful and virtuous. Honest hearts produce honest actions.

In a plain speaking term, honesty is to admit, to say or to give information according to the fact and the truth. In practice and its applications, by law someone’s honesty is being marked by the accuracy of one’s confession or what has been told against the actual and the truth of what has happened.

When we stick to the plain meaning or its literal sense, if someone said something that is not according to the truth and the reality or did not admit about anything that’s truthful, this person can be regarded or labeled dishonest, liar, hypocrite, etc.

"Honesty is the rarest wealth anyone can possess, and yet all the honesty in the world ain't lawful tender for a loaf of bread."
Josh Billings