masterwordsmith-unplugged

To me, honesty and integrity are very important in every area of life, especially in friendship. If a person has no qualms about lying to another for whatever reason - be it a friend or to someone who regards that person as a friend, then regardless of whatever noble values he or she claims to possess, all else would come to naught. Would that person still command the respect of others once lies are uncovered?

Where my classes are concerned, I always remind students to tell me nothing but the truth. If they have not met deadlines, all I ask for is the truth. If they have been tardy or indisciplined, just tell me and I will give them an extension after a long lecture about commitment and dedication.

I always tell them to submit original work and not plagiarized works or worse still, a jigsaw puzzle of plagiarised works.

What good is education, status and recognition if one can lie through their teeth?

Once a friend lies to another, the trust and whatever shared is broken. For some, it takes years to re-build that trust. For others, it may never be salvaged again. Of course there is the question of forgiveness. Whatever the case, I always believe that we must tell the truth and maintain high standards of integrity IF we have a conscience.

I remember reading a quotation about how there are those who "will not tolerate such emotional honesty in communication. They would rather defend their dishonesty on the grounds that it might hurt others. Therefore, having rationalized their phoniness into nobility, they settle for superficial relationships".

And such people may never learn how to care or to feel for others. Perhaps they don't even care for themselves or unable to come to terms with this thing called 'feelings' or 'emotions' because to them, it is likely that only lesser beings care too much.
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Here's an article I read today which resonates with my stand on honesty and integrity. If there is anything I HATE most in life, it would be liars, hypocrites and pretenders.


According to Gary King:

• The Five Levels of Truth-Telling:

• First, you tell the truth to yourself about yourself.

• Then you tell the truth to yourself about another.

• At the third level, you tell the truth about yourself to another.

• Then you tell your truth about another to that other.

• And finally, you tell the truth to everyone about everything. ~ Neale Donald Walsch Conversations with God (Book 2)

Here's a selection of quotes to inspire you to uphold integrity and honesty - to be able to tell the truth in as many (if not all) circumstances.

No legacy is so rich as Honesty. ~ William Shakespeare

Truth is generally the best vindication against slander. ~ Abraham Lincoln

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all the people all the time. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the Truth.
~Benjamin Disraeli

“The Light is more than some abstract, unknowable energy force. Light is Truth. If Light is truth, then darkness must be lies. Each and every lie we tell to ourselves and others casts the shadow of separation upon us. Every time even the most minor deception is revealed and the truth is made known we are re-united with the Light. So, Let there be Light. Those are the words by which you can create your own magnificent world.” - Renee Bledsoe, Addiction Alchemy

Truth is such a rare thing, it is delighted to tell it. ~ Emily Dickinson

The Truth which has made us free will in the end make us glad, also. ~ Felix Adler

I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world. ~ Margaret Mead

Always tell the Truth. That way, you don’t have to remember what you said.
~ Mark Twain

When in doubt, tell the Truth. ~ Mark Twain

It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the Truth and expose lies.
~ Noam Chomsky

The Truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it. ~ Pearl S. Buck

Fiction is the Truth inside the lie. ~ Stephen King

The biggest consequence to telling a lie is, it leads you to telling another one.
~ Gary King

If you do not tell the Truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.
~Virginia Woolfe

Who lies for you will lie against you. ~ Bosnian Proverb

No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar. ~ Abraham Lincoln

A half Truth is a whole lie. ~ Yiddish Proverb

Those who think it is permissible to tell white lies soon grow color-blind. ~ Austin O’Mally

With lies you may get ahead in the world – but you can never go back. ~ Russian proverb

A lie has speed, but Truth has endurance ~ Edgar J. Mohn

Truth is the most valuable thing we have, so I try to conserve it. ~ Mark Twain

A lie may take care of the present, but it has no future. ~ unknown author

We tell lies when we are afraid….afraid of what we don’t know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger. ~ Tad Williams

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. ~ Thomas Jefferson

There is no such thing as an inconsequential lie. ~ Gary King

Truth allows you to live with integrity. Everything you do and say shows the world who you really are. Let it be the Truth. ~ Oprah Winfrey

What you get in your life is not a result of what you want, it is a result of Who You Are. ~ Marlon Smith

If you want to ruin the Truth, stretch it. ~ unknown author

The Truth is more important than the facts. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

The Truth needs no rehearsal. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

Truth and Honesty is the oldest and most powerful of all of the human values.
~ Gary King

Have the courage to say No. Have the courage to face the Truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.
~ W. Clement Stone

Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching. ~ unknown author

Every lie has a consequence.....you cannot escape that.
~ Gary King

Integrity is telling myself the Truth. Andy Honesty is telling the Truth to other people.
~ Spencer Johnson

This above all; to thine own self be true. ~ William Shakespeare

The time is always right to do what is right. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. ~ Oprah Winfrey

If you can not find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you.
~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life. ~ Albert Schweitzer

Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a van of value.
~Albert Einstein

Perhaps the most important thing we can undertake toward the reduction of fear is to make easier for people to accept themselves, to like themselves. ~ Bonard W. Overstreet

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. ~ Marianne Williamson

A lie will easily get you out of a scrape, and yet, strangely and beautifully, repute possesses you when you have taken the scrape and left out the lie.
~Charles Edward Montague

Respect for the Truth is an acquired taste. ~ Mark Van Doren

There’s one way to find out if a man is honest ~ ask him. If he says, “Yes,” you know he is a crook. ~ Groucho Marx

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

Where is there dignity unless there is Honesty? ~ Cicero

The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be. ~ Socrates