Quotes About Honesty

You assume that he has the same level of emotional integrity that you have.

There's nothing wrong with stretching the truth. We stretch taffy, and that just makes it more delicious.

But wouldn't it be nice if we all smuggled a few childlike instincts across the border into adulthood? We'd spend more time saying what we mean and asking questions we care about;

When moral posturing is replaced by an honest assessment of the data, the result is often a new, surprising insight.

If the consequences of pretending to know can be so damaging, why do people keep doing it? That's easy: in most cases, the cost of saying "I don't know" is higher than the cost of being wrong—at least for the individual.

Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.

Every time we pretend to know something, we are doing the same: protecting our own reputation rather than promoting the collective good. None of us want to look stupid, or at least overmatched, by admitting we don't know an answer.

The gulf between the information we proclaim & the information we know to be true is vast. In other words: we say one thing & do another.

maestros, criminales y agentes inmobiliarios pueden mentir, y también los políticos, e incluso los analistas de la CIA. Pero los números no.

It has long been said that the three hardest words to say in the English language are I love you. We heartily disagree! For most people, it is much harder to say I don't know. That's a shame, for until you can admit what you don't yet know, it's virtually impossible to learn what you need to.

The impulse to investigate can only be set free if you stop pretending to know answers that you don't. Because the incentives to pretend are so strong, this may require some bravery on your part.

A person who is lying or cheating will often respond to an incentive differently than an honest person.

cuando la pose moral se ve sustituida por una valoración sincera, con frecuencia el resultado es una revelación nueva y sorprendente.

cuanto más arriba en el escalafón se encuentran los trabajadores, más propensos a engañar son.

Or, as W. C. Fields once said: a thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.

The next time you run into a question that you can only pretend to answer, go ahead and say "I don't know"—and then follow up, certainly, with "but maybe I can find out." And work as hard as you can to do that. You may be surprised by how receptive people are to your confession, especially when you come through with the real answer a day or a week later.

Every time we pretend to know something, we are doing the same: protecting our own reputation rather than promoting the collective good.

W. C. Fields once said: a thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.

teachers and criminals and real-estate agents may lie, and politicians, and even C.I.A. analysts. But numbers don't.

Every time we pretend to know something, we are doing the same: protecting our own reputation rather than promoting the collective good. None of us want to look stupid, or at least overmatched, by admitting we don't know an answer. The incentives to fake it are simply too strong.

When the eyes were watching, Bateson's colleagues left nearly three times as much money in the honesty box. So the next time you laugh when a bird is frightened off by a silly scarecrow, remember that scarecrows work on human beings too.

There is no greater abuse of the Bible than to proclaim in God's name what God is not saying.

But you also want to be honest about your weaknesses. People are much less harsh on weaknesses that are clear than weaknesses that are hidden -- as they should be.

The Moralization Gap is part of a larger phenomenon called self-serving biases. People try to look good. "Good" can mean effective, potent, desirable, and competent, or it can mean virtuous, honest, generous, and altruistic.