Let’s talk honesty, shall we?
I’ve sifted through the Internet to explore the wisdom of great minds past and present and found the best honesty quotes that spill the beans on truth and authenticity.
10 Greatest Honesty Quotes
1. “Our lives improve only when we take chances — and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.” ― Walter Anderson
2. “Honesty is a heart that betrays itself for a dream, a moment, a kiss.” ― Shannon L. Alder
3. “How is it that society professes to embrace the value of honesty when so few are found of it?” ― Wes Fesler
4. “Honesty is a very expensive gift, Don’t expect it from cheap people.” ― Warren Buffett
5. “Brutal, inner honesty… The three scariest words on the planet, and yet, at the same time, the very KEY that unlocks all the doors.” — Ken Dahl
6. “When you walk a life of honesty, you live a life of truth.” — Therese Benedict
7. “The first step is, to be honest, and then to be noble.” — Winston Churchill
8. “Love is honesty. Love is a mutual respect for one another.” — Simone Elkeles
9. “Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.” — Thomas Carlyle
10. “Honesty is of God and dishonesty of the devil; the devil was a liar from the beginning.” — Joseph B. Wirthlin
See also: 220 Awesome Devil Quotes For Instagram + Devil Captions
Inspirational Quotes About Honesty
1. “Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it’ll always get you the right ones.” — John Lennon
2. “I believe fundamental honesty is the keystone of business.” — Harvey S. Firestone
3. “Let’s tell the truth to people. When people ask, ‘How are you?’ have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully.” — Maya Angelou
4. “Don’t ever regret being honest. Period.” — Taylor Swift
5. “An honest man is believed without an oath, for his reputation swears for him.” — Eliza Cook
6. “Be honest, for God is the helper of honest people. Avoid telling lies since it will ruin your faith. Know that honest people are on the verge of nobility and honor, while liars are on the verge of collapse and destruction.” — Imam Ali RA
7. “Honest hearts produce honest actions.” — Brigham Young
8. “To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart.” — Charles Dickens
9. “The elegance of honesty needs no adornment.” — Mary Browne
10. “Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don’t have brains enough to be honest.” ― Benjamin Franklin
11. “Honesty is the best policy.” — Aesop
12. “No legacy is as rich as honesty.” — Unknown
13. “Honesty prospers in every condition of life.” — Friedrich Schiller
14. “Just be honest with yourself. That opens the door.” — Vernon Howard
15. “Honesty is the cornerstone of all success, without which confidence and ability to perform shall cease to exist.” — Mary Kay Ash
16. “I admire honesty more than any other trait.” — Jerry Reinsdorf
17. “It is difficult, but not impossible, to conduct strictly honest business.” — Mahatma Gandhi
18. “An honest man in politics shines more there than he would elsewhere.” — Mark Twain
19. “Honesty and loyalty are key.” — Taylor Lautner
20. “If you’re not honest with yourself, how can you be truly honest with anyone else?” — Paul Williams
21. “Leading your life honestly and truthfully will create trust and friendship.” — Dalai Lama
22. “When you embrace honesty, you liberate yourself from the burden of pretense and deceit. You allow your true self to shine and create space for genuine connections to flourish.” — Unknown
23. “What radical honesty just means is that I want to be free. Part of being free means that I can say what I think and think what I say.” — Naval Ravikant
24. “Honesty leads to peace.” ― Veronica Roth
25. “Honesty is perhaps just as important a factor in one’s communication skills as trust.” ― Ross Elkins
See also: 150 Best Trust Quotes To Help You Cope With Trust Issues
Wise Quotes About Being Honest
1. “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” — Thomas Jefferson
2. “Honesty starts with being ourselves, authentic and true to who we are and what we believe in, and that may not always be popular, but it will always let you follow your dreams and your heart.” — Tabatha Coffey
3. “Honesty is the fastest way to prevent a mistake from turning into a failure.” — James Altucher
4. “The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.” ― Arthur C. Clarke
5. “Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness. Listen to it carefully.” — Richard Bach
6. “Simple honesty of purpose in a man goes a long way in life if founded on a just estimate of himself and a steady obedience to the rule he knows and feels to be right.” — Samuel Smiles
7. “Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief.” ― William Shakespeare
8. “Commend a fool for his wit, or a rogue for his honesty and he will receive you into his favor.” ― Henry Fielding
9. “You can fool people some of the time, but you can’t fool them all of the time.” — Aesop
10. “An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.” ― Ayn Rand
11. “Honesty is never seen sitting astride the fence.” ― Lemuel K. Washburn
12. “Honesty doesn’t always pay, but dishonesty always costs.” — Michael Josephson
13. “Honesty is as rare as a man without self-pity.” ― Stephen Vincent Benet
14. “Honesty needs no disguise nor ornament; be plain.” ― Thomas Otway
15. “I’d rather have cancer than a dishonest heart. Which isn’t being pious. Just practical. Cancer may cool you, but the other’s sure to.” ― Truman Capote
16. “Honesty is the cornerstone of character. The honest man or woman seeks not merely to avoid criminal or illegal acts, but to be scrupulously fair, upright, fearless in both action and expression. Honesty pays dividends both in dollars and in peace of mind.” — B.C. Forbes
17. “Life demands honesty, the ability to face, admit, and express oneself.” ― Starhawk
18. “To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education.” ― John Ruskin
19. “Compliments win friends, honesty loses them.” ― Rabindranath Tagore
20. “A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.” — Proverbs 16:28
21. “Honest people don’t hide their deeds.” ― Emily Brontë
22. “Ethics or simple honesty is the building blocks upon which our whole society is based, and business is a part of our society, and it’s integral to the practice of being able to conduct business, that you have a set of honest standards.” — Kerry Stokes
23, “Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself.” — William Shakespeare
24. “I think honesty is the most heroic quality one can aspire to.” — Daniel Radcliffe
25. “With people of limited ability, modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent, it is hypocrisy.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer
See also: 100 Best Quotes About Hypocrites To Know If You Are One
Thought-Provoking Honesty Quotes
1. “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
2. “People all over the nation are starved for honesty and common sense.” — Ben Carson
3. “Honesty is the best policy — when there is money in it.” — Mark Twain
4. “Pretty much all the honest truth telling in the world is done by children.” — Oliver Wendell
5. “It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” ― Noël Coward
6. “Honesty has a power that very few people can handle.” — Steven Aitchison
7. “The main trouble with being an honest man was that it lost you all your illusions.” — James Jones
8. “Honesty pays, but it don’t seem to pay enough to suit some people.” — Frank McKinney
9. “We are franker towards others than towards ourselves.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
10. “To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.” ― William Shakespeare
11. “Can you honestly love a dishonest thing?” — John Steinbeck
12. “Though I am not naturally honest, I am sometimes so by chance.” ― William Shakespeare
13. “I think people respect honesty rather than hiding it.” — Jack Whitehall
14. “Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.” — Plato
15. “When you do something with a lot of honesty, appetite, and commitment, the input reflects in the output.” — A.R. Rahman
16. “All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.” — John Quincy Adams
17. “Honesty is something you can’t wear out.” — Waylon Jennings
18. “Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition.” — Freeman Thomas
19. “The true measure of life is not length, but honesty.” — John Lyly
20. “Honesty, truth and decency all link together — by loving all of these, we can improve our families, communities and our society.” ― Estella Eliot
21. “Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.” — Brené Brown
22. “When a man is penalized for honesty, he learns to lie.” — Unknown
23. “I think my confidence stems from my honesty. I’m brutally honest — about everything and even myself. I tell it as I think it. I’m not politically correct. I’m definitely not diplomatic. I get bashed up for what I say, but I don’t know any other way.” — Alia Bhatt
24. “Men are as we have always known them, neither better nor worse from the hearts of rogues there springs a latent honesty, from the depths of honest men there emerges a brutish appetite — a thirst for extermination, a desire for blood.” — Frederica Montseny
25. “Anybody who says they are a good liar obviously is not, because any legitimately savvy liar would always insist they’re honest about everything.” — Chuck Klosterman
See also: 160 Best Quotes About Liars To Help You Deal With Them
Honesty And Integrity Quotes
1. “Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” ― Spencer Johnson
2. “The foundation stones for balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love, and loyalty.” — Zig Ziglar
3. “Goodness is about character — integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like.” — Dennis Prager
4. “Honesty is telling the truth to ourselves and others. Integrity is living that truth.” — Kenneth H. Blanchard
5. “Living with integrity means: Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension.” — Barbara De Angelis
6. “We learned about honesty and integrity — that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.” ― Michelle Obama
7. “Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, and treating people with respect.” ― Stephen Covey
8. “Honesty is a moral compass that guides your actions and decisions. It helps you navigate through life with integrity, even in the face of challenges and temptations.” — Unknown
9. “Integrity means that you are the same in public as you are in private.” — Joyce Meyer
10. “To live a life of honesty and integrity is a responsibility of every decent person.” — Noam Chomsky
11. “As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself. Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.” — Nelson Mandela
12. “Develop your character so that you are a person of integrity.” — Peter Cain
13. “Confidence in others’ honesty is no light testimony of one’s own integrity.” ― Michel de Montaigne
14. “Supporting the truth, even when it is unpopular, shows the capacity for honesty and integrity.” — Steve Brunkhorst
15. “The high road is always respected. Honesty and integrity are always rewarded.” — Scott Hamilton
16. “As you experience changes and breakthroughs, know that integrity, honesty, and truth are the highest vibrating energies to guide you forward. Everything else will fall away.” — Molly McCord
17. “One of your most prized possessions is integrity; if this is you, then you should never compromise it.” — Byron Pulsifer
18. “Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.” — Miguel Angel Ruiz
19. “Integrity is the seed for achievement. It is the principle that never fails.” — Earl Nightingale
20. “To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.” — Donald A. Adams
Quotes On Truth And Honesty
1. “The real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful.” — Laura Ingalls Wilder
2. “Truth never damages a cause that is just.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
3. “Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky
4. “Always tell the truth. That way you don’t have to remember what you said.” — Mark Twain
5. “Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth-telling, truth speaking, truth living, and truth loving.” — James E. Faust
6. “If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.” ― Virginia Woolf
7. “To tell the truth is very difficult, and young people are rarely capable of it.”― Leo Tolstoy
8. “All I’m ever looking for in my work, in general, is honesty and truth and people being real to themselves.” — O Tillett Wright
9. “Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.” — Khaled Hosseini
10. “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” ― Albert Einstein
11. “Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.” — Mark Twain
12. “In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.” ― Czesław Miłosz
13. “That is the curse of lying, Sister. Once you place that crown of the liar upon your head, you can take it off again, but it leaves a stain for all time.” ― Terry Goodkind
14. “True honesty is hard. Throughout my career, I’ve faced moments where I’ve needed to take an honest look at myself and face some very uncomfortable realities.” — Les Brown
15. “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.” — Abraham Lincoln
16. “If you tell the truth, you don’t need a long memory.” — Jesse Ventura
17. “It takes strength and courage to admit the truth.” ― Rick Riordan
18. “There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.” — Charles Dickens
19. “Friends are honest with each other. Even if the truth hurts.” ― Sarah Dessen
20. “To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.” ― Edward R. Murrow
21. “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” — Oscar Wilde
22. “When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.” — Khaled Hosseini
23. “Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky
24. “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
25. “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” ― Winston S. Churchill
Quotes About Honesty In A Relationship
1. “The establishment of any relationship, both individual and expert, is honesty.” — Alexander Mejia
2. “Trust is involved in all the basic elements of a healthy relationship: namely, love (respect and consideration for another person), communication, commitment, and honesty.” ― Harold Duarte-Bernhardt
3. “A strong relationship is an honest relationship, and no honest relationship is all peaches and cream. Love is the key. Where love abides, anger is but a passing visitor.” — Jerry Spinelli
4. “Honesty is one of the most important parts of any marriage.” — Amanda Thompson
5. “As long as your feelings, faith, honesty, and understanding are alive, there is no need to measure your love.” — Raj Singh
6. “Just like showing trust is essential in a marriage, it is also of vital significance to be completely honest with each other.” ― Christian Olsen
7. “I think the most important foundation about any relationship is just being honest. You’ve got to. My wife and I are honest to a fault with each other and were best friends on top of it, so we’re very fortunate.” — Max Greenfield
8. “We have no relationship without honesty.” ― Emily Giffin
9. “Honesty is the key to a relationship. If you can fake that, you’re in.” ― Courteney Cox
10. “If two people can be honest with each other about everything, that’s probably the biggest key to success.” — Taylor Lautner
11. “Don’t settle for a relationship that won’t let you be yourself.” — Oprah Winfrey
12. “In a relationship, don’t try to be perfect just be honest.” — Unknown
13. “Working through conflict, we maintain and build a strong but flexible, honest but loving connection in our relationship.” ― Aaron F. Steinberg
14. “Relationships feed on credibility, honesty, and consistency.” — Scott Borchetta
15. “One honest relationship can be more productive than fistfuls of business cards.” — Susan Cain
16. “The critics who love are the severe ones . . . we know our relationship must be based on honesty.” ― Judith Crist
17. “You are the greatest fool in the history of Love if you couldn’t recognize an honest partner.” — Srinivas Shenoy
18. “Stop looking at the end of a relationship as a failure. Leaving it behind can be a courageous choice — and an opportunity for you to be honest and authentic.” — Georgia Kolias
19. “And if you learn to have those difficult conversations in a loving, honest, and responsible way, your relationships can become better than you ever thought they could.” ― Henry Cloud
20. “Healthy relationships of all kinds are usually composed of honesty, trust, and respect.” ― Ace McCloud
21. “Patience has nothing to do with suppression. In fact, it has everything to do with a gentle, honest relationship with yourself.” — Pema Chodron
22. “Love is weak when there is more doubt than there is trust, but love is most strong when you learn to trust even with all the doubts.” — William Blake
23. “If you choose to be in a relationship, be honest and be loyal. If you can’t do those simple things… be single.” — Charles Orlando
24. “Honesty does not always bring a response of love, but it is absolutely essential to it.” — Ray Blanton
25. “Broken trust and anger will close a heart until honesty and love is again found.” — Unknown
See also: 90 Broken Trust Quotes To Help You Deal With Trust Issues
Motivational Honesty Quotes
1. “Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway.” — Mother Teresa
2. “Speak with honesty. Think with sincerity. Act with integrity.” — Unknown
3. “My parents taught me about the importance of qualities like kindness, respect, and honesty, and I realize how central values like these have been to me throughout my life.” ― Kate Middleton
4. “You cannot con an honest man.” ― Ally Carter
5. “Concentration is my motto — first honesty, then industry, then concentration.” ― Andrew Carnegie
6. “You can’t lie to your soul.” — Irvine Welsh
7. “Confidence grows from being honest with myself because I know my strengths, weaknesses, capabilities and I am realistic and honest about what I can do.” ― Patricia A. Gilpin-Hudson
8. “If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.” — Marcus Aurelius
9. “The greatest truth is honesty, and the greatest falsehood is dishonesty.” — Abu Bakr
10. “Honesty is often very hard. The truth is often painful. But the freedom it can bring is worth the trying.” — Fred Rogers
11. “If you are honest with yourself, your life will be so much more pleasant.” — Jessica Zafra
12. “Transparency, honesty, kindness, good stewardship, even humor, work in businesses at all times.” — John Gerzema
13. “Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
14. “Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress.” — Mahatma Gandhi
15. “Be honest in your life, it creates positive energy, stopping all unfairness through life.” ― Fathima Bibi Joosab
16. “Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.” — Sigmund Freud
17. “You have to be able to understand what your insecurities are if you want to change them. In order to do this, you are going to have to be very honest with yourself.” ― Jennifer N Smith
18. “Honesty will never break you.” — Kate Hudson
19. “There’s just some magic in truth and honesty and openness.” — Frank Ocean
20. “You learn how to do good work by being honest with yourself.” ― Rodney Crowell
21. “It’s okay to be honest about not knowing rather than spreading falsehood. While it is often said that honesty is the best policy, silence is the second best policy.” — Criss Jami
22. “Asking in faith requires honesty, effort, commitment, and persistence.” ― David A. Bednar
23. “The real source of inner joy is to remain truthful and honest.” — Dalai Lama
24. “To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
25. “As you grew, we encouraged you to be open and direct. As you leave, never lose your honesty with those whom you speak.” — Catherine Pulsifer and Byron Pulsifer
Wrapping It Up
As we wrap up this article, let these honesty quotes encourage you to embrace the power of honesty in every twist and turn of life’s adventure!
