Moral-education article: Honesty is the best policy.
What does "honesty is the best policy" mean:
You should always tell the truth, even when it seems as if it would be useful to tell a lie.
Well-known honesty stories:
It was the favorite motto of America's first President:
"I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy."
- George Washington
The moral of Aesop's fable "Mercury and the Woodcutter," a story about two woodcutters - one is honest, the other is not.
Reasons below help you determine that honesty is really the best policy.
Honesty makes us brave and strong.
Honesty makes us brave and strong. We are not afraid of anybody or anything. Honesty could lead us to face some problems; nevertheless, we are loved and respected by others. Problems are cured themselves later thanks to the understanding of everyone on our situations.
Honesty is the best policy in relationships:
Honesty builds up good relationship in family, marriage, friends... So, in close relationships, it is the best policy to be honest in every aspect of life.
People in close relationships are those who have many activities and practices with us in everyday life; consequently they easily find out what we have told them truths or lies in later short time. Reasons why they may detect the untrue are that we do not remember a lie we have given, then there appears a contradiction between what have been told and what we say later, and that they may get the fact through other people around.
People in close relationships, for examples family, close friends, colleagues…, are those who give us happiness and joys. Dishonesty can easily break the relationships, which then put us in sorrow, sadness and even regret for some time.
Dishonesty may shine for just a short time while honesty do for a great long time
Dishonesty may earn money, power and success. However, all these stay for just a short time. Dishonesty cannot face the fact itself.
Honesty then shines to push dishonesty away. Honesty pays at the end; as a result, an honest man win a place in hearts of people, which make him successful. He can be remembered and respected even after his death.
Tell the whole truth or leave some of it in secret or use white lies
Telling the whole truth, leaving some of it in secret or using white lies depend on each situation. Telling the truth is always a good policy. However, sometimes we find it difficult to uncover a secret, a fact or an idea; in these cases, silence is a best choice rather than telling out lies. Using white lies is an art where a white-lie-teller should consider whether he should use it or not. Sometimes he should because the listeners accept it. In other cases, the listeners do not; then he should not although white lies are always great to hear. As a result, it is fine to say that a man should consider who the listener is, act in accordance with his own characteristics and his own values, and decide what to say depends on the situation.
Dishonesty works well in telling jokes
Jokes accept dishonesty. Dishonesty sometimes makes a joke completely funny and get more laughs-out-loud. A joke maker must be an “artist” of using dishonesty, otherwise he become a dishonest if his listener does not realize this is just a kidding.
Whether honesty pays or not does not matter.
A man of honesty does not consider whether to say the truth or not, and whether honesty would pay. He keeps the feeling that he should and must be honest, even if honesty gives him loss and difficulties. He simply does bear in his mind that it is right to be honest and therefore wrong to tell lies.
Read more:
Honesty is the best policy 1
Honesty is the best policy 2
Honesty is the best policy 3
To help you get benefits from honesty, we are going to write more about "honesty is the best policy" as follows. Stay our readers:
Honesty is the best policy in marriage
Honesty is the best policy in business
Honesty is the best policy in family
Honesty is the best policy between parents and children
Honesty is the best policy in friendship
Honesty is the best policy in work and among colleagues
