Honesty Is the Best Policy

heard my parents say many times growing up that “ you are as good as your word” and the older i have gotten the more I see how true that saying is. If you are honest that shows others that you meet in your life that you can be trusted. Thomas Jefferson stated that "Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” Meaning that is one of the first traits out of a personality perspective, to have.

Honesty; a responsibility crowned upon each person. In any circumstances, lying is never necessary nor acceptable. There are many pieces of evidence to support this claim in the articles “Rejecting All Lies: Immanuel Kant” by Sissela Bok and “Brad Blanton: Honestly, Tell the Truth” by Barbara Ballinger. Unlike honesty, lying harms one’s worth and mental state.

Integrity and honesty are often thought to coincide: many people believe that is true. Author Stephen L. Carter wrote “The Insufficiency of Honesty”, which was published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1996. He argues that a person can have honesty without ever reflecting back on whether or not what they believe is necessarily true, which is not exactly integrity. Carter builds his credibility in his writing by stating that he was giving a university commencement address, citing statistics and using prominent sources. He also gives well thought out examples to help strengthen his argument that one can be honest without having integrity.

Honesty without integrity can also lead to moral disasters. Well, honesty may be important but not sufficient for integrity. Integrity is both essential and significant. It is acceptable and one will agree with what Stephen L. Carter says about a person having honesty but not integrity. There are also some white lies present. Sometimes saying the truth or telling everything you know might hurt somebody. Harm may not be the intention but positively the effect.

It is actually very hard to be completely honest all the time and in every situation. But I believe that being honest can be very rewarding in the end because you are not deceiving others or yourself which is beneficial to you and society.

Although it may be tempting to cheat, display dishonest behavior, it is more daring and courageous to be an honest person. Although, at the time, the benefits may not be clear to you, being honest can build great character in one 's life. By committing honest actions, one builds integrity (stated in the article titled A Question of Honor, academic integrity leads to personal integrity). Not only does being honest bring benefit to you, but also it brings benefit to the others around you. By being honest, you are creating a trustworthy, truthful environment that is in reality a safer place to live.

Honesty and deception both play valuable roles in all parts of personal lives and society. Richard Gunderman stated, “To tell the truth is to live authentically and responsibly, to really live.” Living honestly is a way to have less stress to your life, proven by Richard Gunderman in “Is lying bad for us?” However, dishonesty seems to at an all time high with the growth of communication as stated in “On Bullshit” by Harry Frankfurt. In addition, lying can provide incredible short-term benefits discussed by Stephanie Ericsson in “The Ways We Lie.” Gunderman’s claim on authenticity is valid because most cultures see honesty and trust as two of the more lauded values. Telling the truth relieves stress and adds trust. Yet, there is a seemingly

The next aspect of truthfulness is sincerity. Sincerity is defined as the quality of being free from pretense, deceit, or hypocrisy (freedictonary.com, 2014). Sincerity is honesty, free of criticism and spreading non truths. Sincerity allows us to be genuine and accepted for whom we are, not by pretending to be what we aren’t. There are no motives behind our message when we are being sincere. Being sincere in our communication is an expression of honesty from which we understand and accept within ourselves.

Honesty has a high value in a society known for altering the truth; through Instagram filters, photoshopped and airbrushed models, and widespread but misleading interpretations of daily life, few things seem genuine. However, deception is justified when it prevents chaos and protects one's interests.

Nowadays, the word ‘integrity’ is continually utilized to clarify the character in the literature. Integrity by the definition in the Cambridge dictionary is: “the quality of being honest”. As the dictionary indicates, usually, a lot of people utilize integrity as a synonym for the honesty, but in my opinion, the word integrity implies much more than fair being honest. American media proprietor Oprah Winfrey said: Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not. Hence, having integrity means doing the right thing in a reliable way by following own moral or ethical convictions in all circumstances, indeed in the event that no one is watching. As taking after the meaning of integrity,

Lying the one form of communication that is the untruth expressed to be the truth. Immanuel Kant states that lying is morally wrong in all possible ways. His hatred for lying has made him “just assumed that anyone who lied would be operating with a maxim like this: tell a lie so as to gain some benefit.”(Landau,pp.171) This is true for a vast number of people, they will lie in order to gain a certain benefit from the lie rather than the truth.It is similar to if you play a game of truth or dare, some rather pick a dare because it would release them from having to tell the truth. However, those who do pick truth still have a chance to lie to cover up the absolute truth.People lie in order to cover who they truly are. Even if you lie to benefit someone or something else, it would not matter to Kant because he does not care for the consequences. If you lie but have a good intention it is not the same for Kant, he would argue that you still lied no matter the consequence that a lie is a lie. “ While lying, we accuse others for not being transparent. While being hypocrites ourselves, we expect others to be sincere.” (Dehghani,Ethics) We know how it feels to be lied to by a person, so in order to not have the feeling returned, we hope the person will be truthful. We rather be surrounded by truthful people constantly despite all the lies that some people tell. No

Honesty plays a vital role in my personal code of ethics requiring integrity, especially in dealing with those near and dear to me. Integrity plays a vital role in my ability to hold myself accountable for any decisions or actions I make.

Now let's talk about this topic called Honesty. I would hope this word stands out to all of you, because this is not something little. This is a strong word. This word carries a lot of work. There is no other way to explain it other than be truthful, and not lying. Whether or not you are an honest person

Honesty is the quality or fact of being honest. Finding a pen off the floor and giving it to a teacher is honesty. Not keeping the pen was respectful and honest, in order to reach