Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Thoughts on honesty

Son, always tell the truth. Then you’ll never have to remember what you said the last time.

—Sam Rayburn


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Just as I can repel force by force without doing wrong and thus with right, so can I repel force by cunning if I lack the power, or if it appears more convenient to me. Therefore, in cases where I have a right to use force, I also have a right to tell lies; for example, I can resort to lies against robbers and ruffians of every sort, whom I accordingly entice into a trap through cunning. Thus a promise extorted by force is not binding. Indeed the right to tell lies goes even further; it occurs in the case of every wholly unauthorized question concerning my personal or business affairs, which is therefore prompted by curiosity. For I should be exposed to danger not only by answering it, but also by merely putting it off and incurring suspicion by saying “I won’t tell you.” Here the lie is the legitimate means of defense against unauthorized inquisitiveness, whose motive is hardly ever benevolent. For I have the right to oppose the implied bad will of others, and accordingly to anticipate with physical resistance, at the risk of the aggressor, the presumed physical violence.

—Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Basis of Morality


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Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true.

—Robert Brault


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A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.

—William Blake


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A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

—Winston Churchill


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Honesty is the cruelest game of all, because not only can you hurt someone — and hurt them to the bone — you can feel self-righteous about it at the same time.

—Dave Van Ronk
Posted by Ajay :: 5:36 PM :: 0 comments

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