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The Importance of Being Honest

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Published: Sep 1, 2023

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Essay on Truthfulness | Importance of Truth in Our Life

February 18, 2020 by Study Mentor 8 Comments

Truth is the virtue by which all your sins can be averted. Honesty is the one thing that holds the power to change hearts. Truthfulness is not only in the case of honesty towards others but it is also about how true we are to our own selves. We all need to realize our potential and learn to stay true to our own convenience.

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As we say, charity begins at home; similarly, truthfulness begins in one’s own mind. If a person is true to his heart and learns to yearn to its calling; then his virtue will lead him to different places altogether where he always wanted to be. Truthfulness is always appreciated in an individual and the quantity of honesty stands him apart from everyone.

To assert the importance of truthfulness, our school had four houses- truth, peace, love and righteousness. Children are taught to appreciate truth from a young age at school and at home. The movement of truthfulness gained momentum, when Gandhiji asserted the importance of truth through his satyagraha which he undertook to redeem India of its captors.

It is said that Gandhiji was greatly influenced by Raja Harish Chandra’s play where the protagonist walked on the path of truth no matter what. This is what inspired him to take up the path of truth in his life. Eventually his ideologies came in influence a lot of people and he was successful in turning out Britishers from our country.

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This is because he stood undeterred on his principles and working. Had he not taken stand of his words, his followers would be none who walk on his given path. Had he not been true to his word, he would not be recognized today for his impeccable character and moral values.

It is his path of truth that is followed today. History holds records of many such men who discovered their true selves when they yearned to their inner calling and learns to recognize it.

Great men like Buddha and Mahavir Swami were born as price and fed with silver spoons. But when they learnt what their heart accepted i.e. non-materialism; they left everything back – all their riches and lavish lifestyle, to start a new life which they wanted for themselves. And thus, they sit out to preach the path of righteousness and truth.

The path of truth is not easy to walk on. The path is laden with thorns of challenges and difficulties. Situations will tempt you to lie and walk on the wrong path due to hard consequences. But it is the strength of your character that stops you from swaying on the wrong path.

There are situations when truth can cost you dearly but at the end, there is no burden on your mind to hide the lies. A spoken lie attracts more lies.

It begins to spin a web around itself. It becomes difficult to get out of that trap of lies which is never ending. It starts with a small lie and to cover up that false statement, more lies are spoken. But as we all know that truth always triumphs.

It always finds a way out of the crevices of doubt that is left behind by false statements. In the end, the hidden truth always comes out and the consequences are even more harsh and grave when they would have been before. Without a truthful living, no success can ever be achieved.

A person should remain truthful to his virtues. Honesty is such a virtue which is admired by one and all. An honest man is always held in high esteem and respected wherever he goes. Recently, a case came up where in a taxi driver found a small case left behind by a passenger in his vehicle. He somehow found out his address and went to passenger’s residence to deliver the same.

There were apart from 1 lakh rupee, documents of vital importance. The owner of the box was surprised and amazed by the honesty shown by the taxi driver. He not only thanked the driver but also offered him a good driving job in his own company. Apart from this fable we also remember the honesty shown by the woodcutter to the god Mercury.

The woodcutter was offered by the god two different axes made up of silver and gold but the woodcutter was not tempted by the lure of gold or silver as he was an honest person. An honest person always wins the hearts of others no matter he may have to suffer.

We all should try to become honest like woodcutter and never be lead by any kind of temptation. This is a rare virtue which everyone does not possess. Therefore show courage and be a hero. When closely observed, we see that honesty stems from truthfulness.

Being truthful is the first step to loyalty, faith and honesty. Because without truth, no loyalty, faith or honesty towards yourself or the other person is possible.

Truth can save you from any difficult situation from worsening. The virtue of truth is the basic fundamental characteristics that should be embedded in each human.

Lies and deceptions stem from not telling the truth. Somewhere on the other, false statements destroys both the parties from insides: – the one who tells the false and the one who is being lied to because he eventually finds out about the lies.

The peculiar thing about truth is that it is like a surgery. The infected part is immediately attacked upon without any haste or twists. But lies are like painkillers.

Reader Interactions

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January 6, 2020 at 6:11 pm

February 13, 2020 at 10:12 pm

Although I am a truthful person,but after reading the essay,I will become more truthful than before

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12 Reasons Why Honesty Is Important In Life

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woman with one hand on her heart and the other in the air illustrating honesty

Honesty is important. That’s a given, right?

Not everyone seems to think so. Lies, deception, and the concealment of truth are commonplace.

But when you actually start to examine the case for honesty, you realize that it’s a far better option than the alternative.

So, here are 12 good reasons why the value of honesty is beyond measure.

1. It underpins trust in a relationship.

Whether you’re dealing with a partner, a friend, a family member, or a colleague, when you are honest with that person, they have a reason to trust you.

If they know that you are a person of honesty and integrity, they won’t need to question what you have to say or look for the underlying motives behind your actions.

They know that you are a straight up kind of person who says what they mean and does what they say.

Compare that to the opposite approach of untruths and half truths which erode trust away, either little by little or all at once.

2. It is easier to understand.

When you are clear in what you truly think or believe, there is no grey area for confusion to grow in.

The other person doesn’t have to second guess what you really mean.

And with clarity comes a better understanding of your expectations of them, should you have any.

They know what you would actually like them to do rather than trying to infer this from the mixed messages you may give when you aren’t being totally honest.

3. You are more likely to get what you want.

The previous point about clarity means that you are more likely to get the end result you are hoping for.

Oftentimes, we conceal our true desires or preferences behind the curtain of “sure” and “fine” and “okay” rather than speak our truth.

But when we are completely honest with ourselves and others, we encourage the right actions that lead to what we want.

When we speak up, the other person is more likely to listen. You may not get your way every time because compromises must often be made, but at least you’ll get your way sometimes or a middle ground will be reached that suits you both.

And being honest is not in any way manipulating people into doing what you want. It’s the complete opposite – it is being transparent and open so that others can take your views and feelings into consideration.

4. It makes space for others to be vulnerable.

Speaking of being open, the great thing about being honest is that it encourages others to be honest too.

And in terms of relationships with other people, openness gives rise to vulnerability and vulnerability gives rise to genuine connection.

Honesty is attractive in that sense because it allows the other person to drop the mask that they may feel they need to wear in life. They are free to be who they are in the knowledge that honesty is rewarded in your company.

5. It shows respect.

When we are honest with someone, we are respecting the fact that they deserve to know the truth.

Not only that, we are respecting the fact that they can handle the truth and don’t need to be told lies just because the truth may be difficult to hear.

Consider the alternative which is to deceive or conceal things from others. That is the very opposite of respect. It communicates that you think you know best what the other person ought to hear, when that’s not your place to say.

6. It almost always leads to the best outcomes in the long run.

Having just mentioned a person’s ability to handle the truth, it is worth pointing out that honesty is not always an easy thing to hear.

It can be difficult to listen to your partner who is telling you that they don’t want to be in a relationship with you anymore. Or a friend who says they think you need professional help for a drinking problem.

Sometimes we lie to ourselves so that we don’t have to face the harsh reality of our situation, and someone else being honest with us can reveal important things we need to address.

Whilst this can sting at the time, it can put us on a different path to someplace better than where we’re currently headed, whether that be a healthier relationship or getting sober.

7. It is simple.

Telling the truth is simple. There is no need to remember what you lied about and to whom. You can be confident that you have said what was true (at least, from your perspective) in the moment you said it.

Now, don’t confuse simple with easy. Being honest is not always easy. In fact, it can often be difficult and uncomfortable when you are telling someone something they might not want to hear.

But because there is no ambiguity in your message, there is little confusion when receiving it. And that makes things much simpler in the long run.

8. It is better for your mental health / inner peace.

Lying doesn’t come easily for most people. When you deceive others, it can feel like you are going against your values or who you want to be as a person.

Not only that, but as soon as you lie, you will live with the fear of that lie being discovered. That’s a mentally exhausting thing.

Honesty, though not always easy, doesn’t carry such burdens. Of course, you may feel slightly bad if you have to tell someone an uncomfortable truth, but that won’t last long.

Being honest means you can rest easy knowing that you have been true to yourself and done what you thought was best in a given situation. And authenticity is a great way to live.

9. It is good for your self-esteem.

Continuing on the mental health benefits of honesty, it helps to make you feel good about yourself.

Your self-esteem is essentially how much you like yourself as a person, and when you are honest, it is a lot easier to like yourself.

Not only that, but when you realize that people like you for who you are and for the honesty you bring, rather than a mask you put on in front of others, it’s empowering.

You can be you, be honest, and still be liked. Maybe not by everyone, but by enough people who matter.

10. It is a demonstration of your character.

There are many other personality traits other than honesty, but positive traits tend to occur together as part of a good character.

When you are honest, it will communicate that you are most likely kind, compassionate, hard working, and reliable.

Consider a liar, on the other hand. They might be tainted with the brush of someone who would cheat or steal or manipulate. Not traits you want to be associated with.

11. It is hard to challenge.

When you aren’t entirely honest with others in what you want, it allows them to challenge you and try to persuade you to their way of thinking.

But when you are honest with someone, they will find it difficult to find the weakness in what you are saying.

For example, if someone asks if you’d like to do something with them and you don’t want to, it is better to state that with crystal clarity rather than say, “Maybe another time.”

Because if your answer isn’t clear, the other person will probably try to twist your arm into doing the thing that you don’t want to do

12. It keeps toxic people away.

Some people live in the shadows of misdirection, concealment, coercion, and outright lies.

Those sorts of people find it hard to ply their toxic trade with those who are honest with themselves and honest with others.

Deception and honesty do not exist well together in the same space, so if you are honest, toxic people are more likely to look elsewhere to get what they want.

About The Author

Steve Phillips-Waller is the founder and editor of A Conscious Rethink. He has written extensively on the topics of life, relationships, and mental health for more than 8 years.

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Society, especially Western society, places a high value on truth.

Truth is the foundation for a fair and just society. In court, we require witnesses to swear to tell ‘ the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth ’, because only that way can justice be delivered.

Most modern religions also have something to say on the matter, and it is clear that they place a high value on the principle of truthfulness.

But is truthfulness an outdated principle in modern times, or does it still have value?

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

- Jesus Christ

Two Types of Truth

There are two aspects of truthfulness: being true to yourself, and being true to others.

The two are not quite the same thing, although they are closely linked. Shakespeare, for example, suggested that someone who was true to themselves was unlikely to be false to others.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as night the day, that thou canst not then be false to any man.

- William Shakespeare

Truthful people will:

Understand themselves , and know their own strengths and weaknesses. They will not delude themselves about their successes or failures;

Present themselves in a way that shows who they really are. Their reputation will be founded on what they are and, whether in public or private, they will be the same;

Meet any commitments or promises that they make;

Be accurate in their descriptions of themselves or others , so that they do not mislead others.

The Importance of Truth

Truth matters, both to us as individuals and to society as a whole.

As individuals , being truthful means that we can grow and mature, learning from our mistakes.

For society , truthfulness makes social bonds, and lying and hypocrisy break them.

If you doubt this, consider what happens when you find out that someone has lied to you. You feel less inclined to trust them next time, and also less inclined to trust other people more generally.

Is it Ever Right not to Tell the Truth?

If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people — including me — would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.

Hunter S. Thompson

There are two possible ways not to tell the truth: not to provide any information, and to provide false information.

First, you do not need to tell everyone everything. Excessive sharing of personal information is not welcome, even if it is the truth. Context is all-important, and you have to consider whether people need and/or want to know.

Sometimes it is better not to say something.

You also need to be able to remain silent if someone has confided in you and asked you not to share the information further.

Under these circumstances, it is therefore appropriate not to tell all the truth.

However, is it right to provide false information or lie?

Is the ‘ right ’ answer to the question ‘ Does my bum look big in this? ’ ever ‘ yes ’?

Well, maybe, in the changing room, before ‘ this ’ is bought. But maybe not. The truthful person will think very carefully about the right answer to that question.

Truthfulness is important, but so is not hurting others. Truthfulness and tact must go hand in hand, because otherwise the truth may be unacceptable to those who hear it.

And consider a government agent. They may need to lie, or pretend to be something that they are not, for the sake of the greater good. But they may still be true to themselves if they believe in the importance of the greater good. At what point does the truth become more important?

That is a matter of personal conscience.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

Oscar Wilde

So there are some circumstances in which lying may be acceptable or necessary.

It is, however, never acceptable to lie in order to make yourself look better, or to avoid trouble that you have brought on yourself.

If you lie about yourself, or to avoid trouble, and people find out, they are unlikely to trust you again.

Finding the Balance

As with many other qualities, you need to find the balance in truthfulness: neither overplaying nor underplaying either your virtues or your weaknesses.

It is as bad to pretend that you are less good at something than you are, as to exaggerate about your abilities.

Teaching Children About Truthfulness

Teaching children about truthfulness is hard.

You want them to understand that it is important to tell the truth. But if they tell you that they drew on the wall, you are going to be quite cross. There is, therefore, a serious incentive to lie, and say that it was their sibling or a visitor.

You may therefore need to think about their incentives to confess, and make sure that they understand the value that you put on telling the truth. You will need to ensure that you demonstrate that, not just say it, by rewarding truth-telling in some way, even if you still need to punish the original misdeed.

Jo and her children had been helping to sort the donations cupboard at the school. There were some small toys in there, which the children really liked. Jo told them to leave the toys alone because they belonged to the school.

On the way home, Jo realised that both children had taken something from the box. She asked if they had done so. Both denied it. Not wishing to give them the wrong incentive, Jo thought carefully and then said,

“ If I find that you have taken something, I will be cross. But if you lie to me, and then I find that you have lied, I will be really, really cross. Did you take something? ”

Both children confessed that they had done so. Jo explained that was stealing, but because they had told her the truth, she gave them a choice: they could either return the toys that they had taken, or they could replace each one with another from home. Both children opted to do that.

The Skills You Need Guide to Life: Living Well, Living Ethically

A Last Word

It is important to live and act in line with your values.

Being truthful to yourself matters because you cannot live in line with your values if you are pretending to yourself that you are something else.

Truthfulness allows you to be honest about yourself to yourself, and to others, and to live a life which reflects that.

Continue to: A Framework for Living Well Balancing Politeness and Honesty

See also: Critical Thinking and Fake News Self Control, Self Mastery Developing Resilience

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Sample Essay- "The Real Meaning of Honesty"

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(Sample Definition Essay)

I think it was my mother who taught me the meaning of honesty. Not because she actually was honest, but because she lied all the time. She felt that the easiest way out of any given situation was generally the best way out. And, for her, that generally meant telling a “little white lie.” As a young child I thought it was kind of cool. And, naturally, when I would come to her with a concern or question wondering what I should do, she generally advised me to lie.

“Mom, I told Theresa that I would go over to her house, but now I would rather go to Sue’s house to play.”

“Tell Theresa you’re sick,” she would advise. And generally I did. But I didn’t seem blessed with her lack of conscience. On many painful occasions Theresa would find out that I really went to Sue’s house without her. These occasions taught me that it is more painful to be caught in a lie than it is to tell the truth in the first place. I wondered how it was possible that my mother had never learned that lesson.

I started thinking of all the lies that I’d heard her tell. I remembered the time she told someone that her favorite restaurant had closed, because she didn’t want to see them there anymore. Or the time she told Dad that she loved the lawn-mower he gave her for her birthday. Or when she claimed that our phone lines had been down when she was trying to explain why she hadn’t been in touch with a friend of hers for weeks. And what bothered me even more were all the times she had incorporated me into her lies. Like the time she told my guidance counselor that I had to miss school for exploratory surgery, when she really needed me to babysit. And it even started to bother me when someone would call for her and she would ask me to tell them that she wasn’t there.

So, I started my own personal fight against her dishonesty. When I answered the phone and it was someone my mother didn’t want to talk to, I said, “Louise, mom is here, but she doesn’t want to talk to you.” The first time I did it, I think she grounded me, but I refused to apologize. I told her that I had decided that it was wrong to lie. And the next time it happened I did the same thing. Finally, she approached me and said, “I agree that lying is not the best thing to do, but we need to find a way to be honest without being rude.” She admitted that her methods weren’t right, and I admitted that mine were a bit too extreme.

Over the past few years, the two of us have worked together to be honest- and yet kind. Honesty should mean more than not lying. It should mean speaking the truth in kindness. Though I started by trying to teach my mom the importance of honesty, I ended up gaining a deeper understanding of the meaning of the term.

What is the term that the speaker is trying to define?
Did someone teach her the meaning of the term, or did she really learn from her own experience?
Is the term defined here presented with more complex reasoning than a dictionary definition

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September 20, 2020

We Need to Do More Research on Honesty

Scientists and philosophers know a lot about why we lie. Now let’s figure out how not to do so

By Judi Ketteler

Aaron Amat Getty Images

Last year, I published a book about honesty , exploring what it means to live a more honest life. I examined my own struggles with honesty, and did my best to translate academic research about honesty and apply it to everyday life. Through interviewing many researchers and reading dozens of studies about ethics, deception, moral character, secrecy, and self-delusion, I learned that we know quite a bit about lying and the reasons people lie in a variety of relationships.

But we know far less about the reasons people are honest.

“From my perspective as a philosopher, honesty is stunningly neglected,” says Wake Forest University philosophy professor Christian B. Miller , author of The Character Gap: How Good Are We? “Almost no work about honesty has been done in philosophy in the last 50 years. It’s been largely overlooked.” And yet, he says, when you ask people what they consider to be the most important virtues, a great majority will include honesty . Courage, patience and kindness may also top the list. Humility, too, perhaps. Chastity, probably not so much. But can you imagine anyone ever leaving honesty off the list?

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So why don’t we know more about what motivates people to be honest? To disclose, to say the true thing, to correct false information, to speak up?

One answer is that in thinking about honesty, we’ve mostly been tuned into deception. By “we,” I mean you and me, and I also mean philosophers and scientists. First of all, lying, or saying untrue things with the explicit intent to deceive people, has been on full display in the form of Donald Trump for the past several years (though he is certainly not the only elected official to practice deception with regularity). We’ve also had a front-row seat watching personalities like Lance Armstrong and Elizabeth Holmes weave their tangled webs. As citizens of the world, we’re obsessed with lying and lies right now—what’s real, what’s fake, and what’s deliberate and deceitful manipulation?

For honesty researchers, the deception focus wasn’t on purpose. Not exactly. There has been a surge of research over the past 15 years in psychology, organizational behavior, behavioral economics and related fields on lying and unethical decision-making. Starting around 2005, investigators developed and refined new methods to examine when and why people lie and cheat to earn money. “Examples include the now classic matrix and die-rolling tasks where people lie about their performance to earn extra money for themselves, and sender-receiver deception ‘games’ where people lie to other participants to earn extra money for themselves,” says Taya Cohen , associate professor of organizational behavior and theory at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. By allowing or provoking people to lie in controlled experiments—methodology that Cohen herself has used in much of her research—researchers can observe, measure and track these behaviors. “This means that lying and cheating can be operationalized in a way that isn’t restricted to people's hypothetical decisions or recalled past behaviors,” Cohen says.

From these and other types of studies, we’ve learned a great deal about how and why people lie. We lie when we think we can get away with it. We lie more in groups , especially if we see other people lying, or we’ve been exposed to a bribe . We lie when the lie—even a lie of self-interest—feels justifiable (it’s only a little bit of extra money). We lie less if we’re reminded to be honest or if we have high moral character or score highly on measures of guilt-proneness or honesty-humility .

In organizations, our lies often are related to preserving some sort of identity , and we lie to protect our reputation, the reputation of someone we support or the reputation of a group to which we belong. In relationships, we lie to spare feelings or avoid awkward situations (but we get really irritated when our romantic partner does the same). We lie to ourselves as well, consistently believing we are smarter than we are . Children are also more likely to lie if they’ve been lied to. We even lie if we’re afraid the truth will look like a lie . And of course, we lie on social media , even if the lies look more like “reshaping” the truth.

These are all extraordinarily helpful findings, with relevant takeaway for nearly any group: bosses, teachers, parents, friends, spouses, voters ( especially voters ). If we understand what motivates and fosters deception, we can better curb those things in ourselves.

I argue in my book that living a more honest life starts with confronting our own deception, instead of simply noticing everyone else’s. For me personally, this has meant paying more attention to what I’m saying and constantly examining my motivations. This started as a more reactionary endeavor (to notice when I was lying), but morphed into a far more proactive one (to continually think about truth). Though both are in service of the same thing—being a more honest person—I have noticed that they don’t feel the same.

This is because they aren’t the same, either in practice or in research. If you set out to study what makes people tell lies, you tend to keep coming up with the same questions to investigate. But if you set out to learn what makes people tell the truth or have the courage to speak up, you will inevitably come up with a different set of questions to investigate. And that could do two things: (1) connect the dots between related research that wasn’t previously linked to honesty since the work didn’t focus on deception, and (2) create an entirely new body of philosophical and scientific research on honesty. “There is so much opportunity for more research about honesty,” Miller says. “And it’s not just an academic matter. There is an obvious real-world relevance and need.”

This is exactly what’s behind the Honesty Project , a $4.4 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to study honesty that Miller and a team of researchers (including Cohen) at Wake Forest and Carnegie Mellon were awarded in August. The project has a three-year timeline that involves funding competitions for Ph.D. academics studying the philosophy and science of honesty, and a conference at the end of the project. Miller will serve as project director (he previously directed the Character Project ) and team members have their own research they will conduct as well. Wake Forest psychology professor William Fleeson will study how to cultivate honesty across the political divide. This is particularly interesting to me because I’ve noticed that in our current climate of political polarization, the people on one side tend to think all the people on the other side are just lying. Even as a person who has engaged with honesty a lot and written a book about it, I still feel this way whenever I hear anything Donald Trump is saying. That he lies is a fact. But are all the people who support him liars who don’t care about honesty? That’s an interesting question.

Cohen’s recent research has been focused on honesty in difficult conversations , particularly the idea that we cannot be both kind and honest at the same time. Through her work with Emma Levine at the University of Chicago, she’s found that we often think being honest with people will be much harder and socially disastrous than it is (in fact, people find that being honest strengthens relationships and social connections more than they expect). She has plans to do more research on honesty and disclosure in difficult situations, hoping to discover concrete, actionable tips that people in organizations can use.

Though letters of intent for proposals are not due until November, Cohen is already hearing from investigators in fields as diverse as political science and computer science. One of the aims of the project is to see what researchers are working on that can be brought into the fold, particularly primary investigators early in their career (the project will give preference to those who are within 10 years of receiving their Ph.D.).

The hope is that through this more specific focus on the virtue of honesty—the virtue we hold as one of the most important virtues, or even the most important one—we can learn more about what motivates people to be honest, how honesty impacts relationships, groups and institutions, and how we can better cultivate honesty as individuals and members of groups and families.

Candidly, my hope is even bigger. I believe that through pouring substantial intellectual and financial resources into the study of honesty, we can be better at everything from disease prevention to racial reconciliation to climate change. Naturally, I’m quite eager to see what these investigators turn up and ultimately present at the 2023 conference. I do already know one thing though: Honesty carries with it an amazing power. It’s not just a shield against deception; it’s a way to change the world.

Honesty Essay Examples: Essay Samples On Honesty

Low Cost, Fast Delivery, and Top-Quality Content: Buy Essay Now and Achieve Academic Excellence for Less!

You may realize the importance of honesty in daily life; it can be an uphill task when it comes to writing an essay. So, if you’ve been assigned to write an essay on honesty , and you’re not sure how to go about it, you’re at the right place. We have some useful information and essay samples to help you write a piece that compels the reader.

We understand how challenging it gets to write an essay on easy topics. Students get nervous that their writing may sound ordinary. However, if your ideas are unique and you explain them interestingly, your piece is sure to impress. All you need is to follow a basic structure of an essay when writing an essay on honesty:

Introduction.
Conclusion.

Make sure you write a thesis in your introduction that will help the reader understand what you are going to discuss in the body. Besides, each paragraph must contain a separate idea or argument. And, to support them, you can give real-life examples, either your personal or a situation you have observed around you.

Article structure

Short Essay About Honesty

The saying’ honesty is the best policy is probably heard by everyone. However, it is hard to be honest with everyone around, and even more, it takes a lot of courage to be honest with yourself. On the other hand, a parent cannot expect their child to be honest in life if they are not honest to themselves. Hence, it would not be unfair to say that honesty is a two-way street. But even if the other person is being dishonest, one should stick to the policy of being honest. The reasons why honesty is the best policy are discussed below.

First of all, honesty is an attribute that helps you develop other traits such as kindness and moral integrity in your personality. Truthfulness is a trait that is instilled in your personality as a kid, and it only works in life if the people around you are truthful with each other. It also helps you to be courageous and say whatever your heart believes in. It also makes you and your opinions authentic. If you are honest, people will rely on you and your opinions if they ever need one.

However, it is very easy to lie to people, but there is no way you can do that to yourself because it will never sustain. You can only have peace of mind if you are truthful in your day-to-day happenings. It fosters a trustworthy relationship between people and helps in bringing people together.

Therefore, honesty is the fastest way to prevent a mistake from turning into a failure, and it’s the first chapter of life when it comes to wisdom. Thereby, one should make an effort to leave a legacy of honesty and truthfulness for their generations to come.

Essay Sample on Why Is It Important to Be Honest

Honesty is the best policy, they say. But, certain situations in life leave you wondering whether or not you should tell the truth. In situations like these, many people say, often go with the fabricated story. It is because they find it easy to get away with things this way. But is it the best way to handle complicated situations? Certainly not because no matter what the consequences may be, being honest should be the only option. This essay will discuss how honesty can take you places in life.

The important reason why is it important to be honest is that it’s the easiest thing to practice to be successful, happy from within, and fulfilled. For instance, if someone is caught in a situation where they have done something wrong and are afraid to tell the truth to their parents when asked, telling lies and deceiving the parents would only make things worse in the long run. They may get away with what they have done, but their conscience will keep nagging them. Besides, if the parents somehow find out the truth later, they may not trust their child anymore. On the other hand, if the child is honest, the parents will probably scold them, but eventually, they will support them and help them get out of any situation they are in. Being honest can cause a moment of discomfort for many people, but talking the truth eventually makes the situation in their favor. Moreover, their honesty would increase their respect in others’ hearts, and they will likely get rewards for being honest. All in all, honesty is about being true to yourself and others about what you want and who you are. It helps promote openness and enables people to establish consistency in how they present the truth.

On the contrary, lying is equally damaging whether people do it to themselves or others. When they lie, they delude themselves into believing what they are saying. Even if it’s a tiny lie, it is damaging, as it will keep getting bigger over time. People who lie confuse themselves and confuse others. Moreover, they lose credibility and put themselves in jeopardy. Frequently, people lie to themselves to do something that they know is wrong. For instance, if they convince themselves to steal from a wicked person, they have probably lied that it is okay to steal from bad people and they need it. It may produce temporary pleasure, but it won’t take the wrongdoer anything.

On the other hand, when people are dishonest to others to create a good image of themselves, they damage their credibility in the long run. For instance, if someone wants to impress their employer in the first interview by deceiving them, it could later harm their work life. Sooner or later, they may find out the truth, and the liar will be in trouble or may have to tell more lies to build up a facade personality. Doing so may help them succeed in the short run, but they can’t go places where honesty and truthfulness can take them.

To conclude, despite the temptation and ease of use, lying gets no one anywhere in the end. On the contrary, dishonest people stay right in their tracks or, much worse, go backward. This is why it is important to rewire the brain about its importance to stay truthful, regardless of the situation. Besides, it is equally important, to be honest with oneself and practice honesty in daily interactions.

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Why One Has to Be Truthful in Life?

The meaning of truthful, being truthful, post-truth and much more

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth” – Buddha

Valued and revered, the trait of truthfulness holds a special place in the universal system of values. Honored and respected throughout time, being truthful is a prerequisite in any law system. It is common that leaders in the society are expected to be honest and truthful while deceitful leaders have usually met violent ends in the history of time.

A truthful person is committed to speaking and acknowledging the truth, and acting with integrity. While it takes courage to speak the truth without the fear of any consequence, it is by being truthful that we earn respect and love. Satya refers to the meaning of truthfulness in Hindi, where one strives only to speak the truth and nothing else.

Every student is aware of the messy nature of lying. Sooner or later a liar is bound to forget his lies or keep their tails straight. It’s easy to lie but impossible to keep track of them. One can easily create this fantasy world but in an ever-changing universe, lies are short-lived. Truth always has a way of coming up to the surface and hence, no matter how intricately the lies have been woven, there’s only one outcome. The bubble bursts.

Yet, lies replacing truthfulness have become more or less the norm in modern society . Lies have become so blatant that there are fairness creams that claim to make a dark-skinned person into a fair and handsome bloke. However, the irony lies here; the advertisement for the fairness cream markets a white man to be attractive while an astonishing fact is that the most perfect human face belongs to Denzel Washington who incidentally is a black man. What is then the meaning of being truthful?

However, as students, we must all acknowledge that we have all lied at some point. It is always easier to give the excuse of a traffic jam than to admit that you got up late. However, doing this will neither enhance the lives of students or force us to make amends. Although we have lied to another person, we essentially have lied to ourselves. Being truthful is a quality innate, springing up from the core of one’s conscience. The meaning of being truthful lies in a pure indulgence in truthfulness irrespective of the consequences.

It is amusing that somehow being truthful stresses us out as compared to indulging in telling a lie. Students may lie to cover their tracks, get away with something, or just to feel more comfortable. But in reality, nothing can be trickier and tiring than telling a lie. It is simply exhausting to tell lies and keep track of them. Mark Twain observed, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” And that is the beauty of being truthful; the peace of mind that truth offers cannot be equated with anything else in the world.

A fair and just society is based on the foundations of truth. Besides, all witnesses in court must swear to tell the truth – “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” It is mandatory because the pathway of truth is the only way justice can be delivered. Additionally, sincere students are fully aware of their skills and shortcomings and realize who they are. Thereby, truthful people indulge in an honest portrayal of themselves to the world. They do not have different faces for the public and private realm unlike the others who lie. They ascertain that they fulfill their promises or commitments and give a precise description of themselves and others. They never try to mislead anyone.

Truthfulness as a social characteristic, acts as a binding force to keep the community grounded and rooted. Introduce lies and hypocrisy and it won’t take long for hell to break loose. The quality of being truthful allows for ample self-introspection and one always has a moral conscience that helps learn from mistakes and differentiate right from wrong.

Fundamentally, truth can be divided into two types – being true to yourself, and being true to others. Though closely linked, the two mustn’t be mistaken to be the same. As William Shakespeare said, “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, that thou canst not then be false to any man”. Being truthful to oneself allows one to extend it to others as well.

“If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people — including me — would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism”- Hunter S. Thompson

Students should be aware that it is impossible to always tell the truth. Truthfulness in rare circumstances can equate to an act of absolute stupidity. Hence, it is not well-advised to tell everything to everyone for that matter. Excessive sharing of personal information is not welcome, even if it is the truth.

Also, never divulge secrets. It is absolutely important to remain silent if someone has confided in you and asked you not to share the information further. Under such circumstances, you are duty-bound to keep mum and not advocate being truthful.

Truthfulness is important, but so is not hurting others. Hence, truthfulness and tact must go hand in hand, otherwise, the truth may be unacceptable to those who hear it.

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Three Steps to Teach Children About Honesty

“I don’t think my child understands the importance of honesty,” a mother once said to me, after she found her child lying about eating Halloween candy that had been made off-limits.

We teach children how to count, to read, to tie their shoelaces. We teach them to develop the abilities they need to be happy, active, and well-adjusted adults. Honesty is one of those behaviors. It forms the basis of trust in our relationships. Learning how to be honest and communicate in a respectful, kind, and truthful manner is an important skill we need to teach our children.

In my new book, The Truth About Lying: Teaching Honesty to Children at Every Age and Stage , I draw on over 20 years of my psychological research to share what we have learned about how we can teach children about honesty, how we can deal with our children’s dishonesty, and how we can develop a close relationship based on open and truthful communication. Here are three steps parents can take to raise more honest kids.

1. Talk with children about honesty

It is important to talk about honesty with children. But when do you have these conversations and what do you say?

The best time to discuss the importance of honesty and truthfulness is when you and your child are calm and relaxed, not in the heat of the moment after you have just caught your child lying . If you talk about honesty and discuss why it is important at times when the child is able to hear you and process what you are saying, then when you come to those moments when you are disciplining your child about lying, you can refer to these principles without getting into long explanations or heated discussions.

The important elements of these conversations include explaining what honesty is and why it is important. For young children, a simple definition is enough; simple and short discussions are fine. For older children and teenagers, you can have more elaborate discussions about what it means to be truthful to yourself and to others and why.

For example, you can discuss with them examples of how you can practice honesty (e.g., “When you make a mistake, you admit it”). As children grow older and into adolescence, they can come up with their own examples and discuss how honesty was (or was not) practiced in those situations. You can ask children questions to reflect on how to be honest in different situations (e.g., “A kid forgot to do her homework, and the teacher asked where it is. What does honesty look like in that situation?”). You can also discuss people’s intentions, and the potential outcomes that result from honest or dishonest behavior. Stories are a great tool for having these conversations. They can be cautionary tales about what happens when you lie. But, as I explain in my book, our research has found that the most effective stories illustrate to children how to be honest even when it might be easier to lie. They can show that there are positive consequences to being honest—and there are times when it’s OK to confess the truth.

You can ask your younger child questions about what the characters said (truthful/lie), what the different characters may be feeling, why the characters acted the way they did, how they could have acted, and what were the outcomes of their actions.

Parents of older children and teenagers can also benefit from this technique as a starting point for conversations about honesty. For instance, parents can discuss characters in books their older child is reading and bring out elements related to honesty and dishonesty. You can tell personal stories about times when you were honest (or dishonest), telling the child what you felt and what happened to you. You can also discuss stories you hear of in the media. For older children and teenagers, there should be more of a give-and-take between parent and child about honesty, with the youth having an active voice in that conversation.

2. Acknowledge and recognize honesty

Acknowledging honesty when you see it is an important and powerful way to foster truthfulness.

We often notice children being dishonest and we (rightfully) draw their attention to it. However, we also need to frequently draw attention to their honesty. Saying that honesty is important, but then not giving it any recognition or value in practice, sends a weak message about how truly important you think honesty is.

When you see the behavior, label it (e.g., “I see you are being truthful about the mistakes you made”). You can give positive appreciation (e.g., “Thank you for being honest about where you were this afternoon”) and praise (e.g., “I am glad you told the truth about making a mess”).

But be careful not to overdo the praise. Avoid insincere or excessive praise (e.g., “Wow, you told the truth! It is just so amazing how honest you are being”), as children can easily detect false, exaggerated praise. That’s especially true when you are trying to emphasize honesty, sincerity, and trustworthiness! You should also try to avoid comparative praise (e.g., “You are much more honest now”), which can backfire by communicating to the child that they are perceived as being dishonest; that may obscure any positive message about what they did right.

If used with sincerity and mindfulness , acknowledgement and praise are powerful tools for fostering children’s honesty and their internalization of this standard of behavior.

3. Model honesty

If you want your children to be honest, you have to show them how to be honest. Matching our deeds to our words is more powerful than words alone. It undermines the message when we tell kids that honesty is important, but then they see us be dishonest, even in small ways. The message children derive from mismatched behavior is that we give lip service to the virtue of honesty, but when it suits us we can “fudge” it and lie.

How does that happen? Parents may not realize the small fib that they told (e.g., saying their 13 year old is under 12 to pay the child fare) is sending a powerful message. When we send and receive messages that say “it’s OK” to do that—but just a little—then we all become “fudgers.” If parents think honesty is important and should be maintained, then they need to exemplify that in their behavior.

This is also true for keeping promises. As a parent, you should only make promises you know you can keep—and commit to them. Breaking a promise compromises our trustworthiness. If promises are heedlessly made and easily broken, children learn they don’t need to keep to their commitments or be honest about what they will or won’t do. For parents, being honest means we have to sometimes take a step back, think before we speak, and only make promises we know we can deliver. The benefit of being thoughtfully honest is that your child will see you as dependable, a trustworthy source of information, and emotionally reliable.

Through the conversations we have with children about honesty, we can foster their moral reasoning, as well as consideration of other people’s feelings and perspectives. When such discussions are paired with the recognization of honesty and what children learn from observing the adults around them, our messages are mutually reinforced. What we do, what we say, and how we act all influence the child.

About the Author

Victoria Talwar

Mcgill university.

Victoria Talwar, PhD, is a James McGill Professor and the chair of the Department of Educational & Counselling Psychology at McGill University. She is a recognized leading expert on children’s deception and has published numerous articles on children’s honesty and lie-telling behaviors.

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Essay on Honesty is the Best Policy for Students and Children

500+ words essay on honesty is the best policy.

Honesty implies being truthful. Honesty means to develop a practice of speaking truth throughout life. A person who practices Honesty in his/her life, possess strong moral character. An Honest person shows good behavior, always follows rules and regulations, maintain discipline, speak the truth, and is punctual. An honest person is trustworthy as he always tends to speak the truth.

Every one of us must have heard the phrase “ Honesty is the Best Policy ”. It is indeed a wise phrase. Probably, every child learns this teaching from their parents. This beautiful teaching has been taught since time immemorial. However, its practice has certainly fallen short. People resort to lies very easily nowadays. Furthermore, there is rampant corruption these days. People deceive others by being dishonest. Hence, there is an urgent need for this teaching’s revival.

Benefits of “Honesty is the Best Policy”

A major component for developing moral character is Honesty. Honesty helps in developing good attributes like kindness, discipline, truthfulness, moral integrity and more. Lying, cheating, lack of trust, steal, greed and other immoral attributes have no part in Honesty. Honest people are sincere, trustworthy and loyal, throughout their life. Honesty is valuable and it is the habit of utmost importance. There are famous quotes, said by a great personality like “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom”. It holds good due to its ability to build, shape and motivate integral values in one’s life.

First of all, Honesty promotes authenticity. Honesty reflects one’s own feelings and thoughts. Honesty certainly helps people in knowing who you really are. Hence, one must be honest in self-expression.

Honesty removes fear from the heart. It makes a person courageous and confident . It certainly takes a huge amount of courage to speak the truth. Speaking truth is a sign of bravery . The one who lies is a coward. Speaking falsehood is a sign of low self-confidence.

Another notable benefit of honesty is maturity. Honesty certainly reflects the maturity of a person. An individual is probably mature if he regularly speaks the truth. Furthermore, a mature person speaks the truth in a non-hurtful way.

Honesty strengthens and improves relationships between people. It certainly helps in bringing people together. Most noteworthy, it fosters a connection between individuals

Another terrific advantage of Honesty is the peace of mind. Honesty certainly makes an individual feel free. An honest individual enjoys a light-headed feeling. This is because he does not feel the stress and tension of lying. Furthermore, an honest person does not have to deal with keeping secrets. All of this feels very relaxing.

Honesty definitely keeps troubles away. A lie can provide temporary relief to a person. However, lies only pull a person into more and more trouble. One lie can easily lead to a hundred more lies. Therefore, one must be truthful from the beginning. This essentially means one must stay honest on every occasion.

Honesty will certainly result in high-quality friends. An honest person will make lifelong friends. The friendship will be very close and strong which involve such individuals.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

How to Avoid Lying

Have faith in people. Almost everyone lies because of a lack of faith in others. One should not assume that others will not accept the truth.

Gather up courage to speak up the truth. Speaking truth certainly takes a lot of courage. It is not the job of a faint-hearted person.

Always think from the other person’s perspective. So certainly ask yourself the question: “would you prefer to be lied to?”. Certainly, the answer would be no. So, why should you lie to others.

One should always prepare the words before speaking the truth. Furthermore, one must ensure not to be rude or blunt. Also, the person must be diplomatic.

In conclusion, the phrase “Honesty is the Best Policy” is of significant importance. Honesty is the light of hope in this dark world. Honesty shall always prevail while falsehood is bound to perish.

Honesty – Benefits:

Honesty is always admirable in the family, civil society, friends and across the globe. A person with honesty is respected by all. For one to build the character of Honesty entirely depends on his/her family values and ethics and his/her surrounding environment. Parents showing honest behavior and character in front of their children create an impact on the children and we say “Honesty lies in their genes”. Honesty can also be developed practically which requires proper guidance, encouragement, patience, and dedication.

An honest person is always known for his/her honesty just like a sun is known for its eternal light and unlimited energy. It is a quality which helps a person to succeed in life and get much respect. It gives identification to the moral character of a person. Dishonest people may easily get trust and respect from other people. However, they lose that forever whenever they get caught.

Being dishonest is a sin in all the religions, however, people practice it for their short time benefits and selfishness. They never become morally strong and their life becomes miserable. An honest person moves freely in society and spread his/her fragrance in all directions. Being honest is never mean to bear the bad habits of others or bear ill-treated activities. Everyone has rights to reveal and take action against what is going wrong with him.

Importance of Honesty in Life:

Honesty plays an important role in everyone’s life and it is a character which is visible with open eyes like an open book. Having considered as an Honest person, by society is one of the best compliment one can dream of in his/her entire life. It is the real character a person earns in life by being sincere and dedicated towards it. Lack of honesty in society is doom. It is due to the lack of proper interpersonal relationship between parents-children and students-teachers. Honesty is a practice which is built slowly and patiently, firstly at home and then school. Hence home and school are the best places for a child to develop Honesty since his/her growing times.

Home and school are the places where a child learns moral ethics. Thus, the education system should ensure to include some essential habits and practices to keep a child close to morality. Children must be instructed right from the beginning and their childhood to practice honesty. Youths of any country are the future of that country so they should give better opportunities to develop moral character so that they can lead their country in a better way.

For all human problems, Honesty is the ultimate solution. Corruption and various problems are everywhere in society. It is because of the decreasing number of honest people. In today’s fast and competitive world, we have forgotten about moral and integral ethics. It is very important and necessary for us to rethink and remodel, that we bring the honesty back in society so that everything goes in a natural manner.

Conclusion:

Moral ethics of a person is known through Honesty. In a society, if all the people seriously practice getting honest, then society will become an ideal society and free of all the corruptions and evils. There will be huge changes in the day-to-day life of everyone. It can happen very easily if all the parents and teachers understand their responsibilities towards the nation and teach their children and students about moral ethics.

People should realize the value of honesty in order to manage social and economic balance. Honesty is an essential requirement in modern time. It is one of the best habits which encourages an individual and make capable enough to solve and handle any difficult situation in his/her life. Honesty acts as a catalyst in strengthening our will power to face and fight any odds in life.

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Paragraph on Honesty And Truthfulness

Students are often asked to write a paragraph on Honesty And Truthfulness in their schools. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 200-word, and 250-word paragraphs on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

Paragraph on Honesty And Truthfulness in 100 Words

Honesty and truthfulness are like superpowers that make you a good person. Being honest means you do not lie and always tell the truth, just like superheroes! Truthfulness is when you always speak the truth and never hide anything. These two are like best friends, always together. When you are honest and truthful, people trust you more. They know you won’t lie to them. This makes you a better friend, a better student, and a better person. So, always remember, honesty and truthfulness are very important to be the best you can be!

Paragraph on Honesty And Truthfulness in 200 Words

Honesty and truthfulness are like the sun that brightens our days. Being honest means you tell the truth, don’t lie, cheat, or steal. It’s like playing a game where everyone follows the rules. Imagine how fun and fair that game would be! Truthfulness is like a friend who always tells you the truth, even when it might be hard to hear. It’s like your reflection in a mirror, always showing you exactly how things are. When you’re truthful, you say things as they are, not how you want them to be. Honesty and truthfulness are important because they make people trust you. If you tell your friend you’ll return their pencil and you do, they’ll trust you more. If you tell your teacher the truth about not doing your homework, they’ll appreciate your honesty. Being honest and truthful helps you have good friends, happy teachers, and a peaceful mind. Remember, honesty and truthfulness are like seeds. If you plant them in your life, you’ll grow a beautiful garden of trust, respect, and love from everyone around you. So let’s all try to be honest and truthful, like the sun and the mirror, every day!

Paragraph on Honesty And Truthfulness in 250 Words

Honesty and truthfulness are two important values that everyone should practice. Honesty is all about being truthful, fair, and sincere with actions and words. It means not telling lies, not stealing, and behaving rightly. It is a key to a peaceful life and is a quality that earns respect. On the other hand, truthfulness is about always telling the truth, no matter what. It means not hiding the truth, not misleading others, and being honest in every situation. It is a value that helps us build trust with others. These two values are like two sides of the same coin; you can’t have one without the other. Being honest without being truthful is like a bird trying to fly without wings; it’s impossible. And being truthful without being honest is like a tree without roots; it can’t stand. So, we should always be honest and truthful. They help us make good choices, strengthen our relationships, and build a strong character. They also help us grow as people and make our society a better place. Remember, when we are honest and truthful, we are at peace with ourselves and others. So let’s all practice honesty and truthfulness, and make our world a better place.

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Why Honesty Is Often Difficult

Telling the truth is important, even when it hurts..

Posted February 1, 2022 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

What Is Stress?
Find a therapist to overcome stress
When feeling besieged, doing the right thing is even harder than usual. But it's no less important.
Sometimes telling the truth is difficult, because it can mean sacrificing what one genuinely wants or needs.
It's easy to convince oneself that a small lie is harmless, but cheating is a slippery slope.

By Angela Duckworth, Ph.D. This is the first in a two-part series on honesty.

“Could you describe a time when you told the truth and it hurt you?”

I wish I could say I came up with this interview question. It gets right to the heart of why honesty is often difficult, which is that telling the truth can mean sacrificing something you genuinely want or need.

But I’d be lying if I did.

The question comes courtesy of journalist David Brooks, who in turn gives credit to someone he ran into “who hires a lot of people.”

Right now, talking about honesty might feel old-fashioned. The pandemic and its ripple effects of anxiety and stress may seem like a license to prioritize our wants and needs over our oughts and shoulds. In particular, more than a few students and parents I’ve spoken with in recent months told me that until this crisis is behind us, it should be okay to cheat a little on homework and exams. And nationwide, reports of cheating at college since the advent of the pandemic have skyrocketed .

New research shows that, indeed, students who report higher levels of distress, sadness, and other negative emotions tend to adopt more generous attitudes toward plagiarism, which in turn predicts actually committing more plagiarism.

In other words, when you’re feeling besieged, doing the right thing is even harder than usual.

Yet I think it’s just as important. At Character Lab, we include honesty as a strength of heart, in the same family as kindness and gratitude . Like other strengths of heart, honesty helps us relate to other people in positive ways. But when it comes to forming judgments about other people, research suggests that nothing is more important than moral character.

It is perhaps for this reason that a student I know well went out of her way to show me her transcript from last semester. With pride, she pointed out her statistics grade—which was noticeably lower than the others. “It was an incredibly hard class,” she explained. “And so many students cheated, working together on the exams even though the professor told us not to. I did my own work. The grade sucks, but I did the right thing.”

Don’t underestimate the influence of stress on every aspect of behavior, including honesty. Decisions to do the right thing are more difficult when you feel like you’re struggling.

Do raise the topic of honesty with the young people in your life. Tell a story about a time when you told the truth and it hurt you—and perhaps a time when you failed to be truthful and regretted it. And be honest about being honest. It can be hard to hold fast to our principles—yet imperative that we try.

Angela Duckworth is the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance . She is also the co-host of the podcast No Stupid Questions .

Character Lab is a nonprofit whose mission is to advance scientific insights that help kids thrive.

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The importance of being true to yourself.

Being true to yourself is a life-long practice that requires commitment and re-commitment, moment to moment, as you grow and evolve. The answer to what is true for you always exists at the core of who you are, if you give yourself the space and time to listen.

When you are being true to yourself, you are completely honest with what you feel, deeply value, and desire. It also means communicating your feelings wholeheartedly both with yourself and others, allowing your truth to flow through you and into the world.

To know your truth fully and express it authentically, you first need to cultivate a deep and trusting relationship with yourself. Ultimately, this begins with awareness of your thoughts, as well as awareness of your whole-body experience and how you interact with the world each day.

You can expand your awareness and strengthen the connection with yourself through introspective practices such as meditation, yoga, and journal writing. These practices help you become more present and establish reference points to identify when you are (or are not) living in alignment with the deeper aspect of yourself. The more you practice, the easier it becomes to self-correct when you are out of alignment.

Understanding when you are in alignment or out of alignment may often be based on an intuitive feeling rather than a thought. Feelings of openness, expansion, inner joy and freedom are good signs that you are on the right path. Conversely, if you are not being true to yourself, it may show up through feelings of contraction and tension, unease, disconnection, resignation, emptiness, discontentment, or a lack of fulfillment.

By learning to pay attention to your deeper senses and feelings, and by cultivating greater awareness in your life, you can establish a strong connection to yourself and feel confident in knowing what is deeply true for you.

But what is true, also yearns to be expressed. So it is up to each of us to be courageous in bringing forth our own truth, expressing it fully and authentically in the world.

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Thought Leadership ›

Be honest or kind? Do you really have to choose?

By Brett Beasley

Most managers struggle to balance honesty with kindness. But research suggests the two may not conflict as often as we think.

You have to be consistently receptive to bad news, and then you have to act on it. Sometimes I think my most important job as CEO is to listen for bad news. If you don't act on it, your people will eventually stop bringing bad news to your attention. And that's the beginning of the end. — Bill Gates

Most of us know deep down that Bill Gates is right: To improve, we need to hear hard truths and be ready to respond in constructive ways.

While we know this, we still often hesitate to deliver negative feedback to a colleague. In such moments, we tend to focus on how uncomfortable difficult truths will make our colleague feel. We can't get past the fact that, as the saying goes, the truth hurts. So we compromise; we tell just enough of the truth to feel we’ve been honest but not enough of the truth to hurt our colleague’s feelings.

Emma Levine (U. of Chicago), her colleague Annabelle Roberts, and Taya Cohen (Carnegie Mellon), have made it their mission to collect, catalog, and analyze the different forms this kind of compromise can take. One is what they call “paltering”: telling the truth but in a misleading way. For example, we might comment only on the good aspects of our colleague’s performance without mentioning the areas where he or she needs improvement. Alternatively, we might dodge or deflect our colleague’s direct questions about his or her performance and steer the conversation toward other topics. Worst of all, we might try to get out of the dilemma by avoiding difficult conversations altogether.

These strategies have one thing in common: They don’t work.

Levine and her fellow researchers point out that these strategies go awry because in their attempt to balance honesty and niceness, they fail in both categories. They point out that withholding information does not feel like a lie—at least not to the person withholding it. But when we have information withheld from us, we judge the act differently: We consider it equivalent to an outright lie. Additionally, when we share hard truths only partially, we still create harm. The difference is that the harm lies in the future. We may not make our colleague immediately sad or angry by sugarcoating our negative feedback, but we will likely limit their career and personal growth in the long run.

In short, if we think we’re being nicer by avoiding difficult conversations or withholding the truth, we’re wrong.

But the researchers do not recommend simply being brutally honest instead. In fact, they say, this strategy can also backfire in its own way. The colleague receiving brutally honest feedback will misunderstand our motivations and may think we’re engaging in a personal attack. This will not put our colleague in a good frame of mind to hear and respond to our criticism.

Instead, the researchers claim we need to reject the idea that kindness and honesty are at odds with one another. Instead of choosing between being nice and being honest, we need to find strategies that allow us to combine and maximize both.

Their initial research into the subject suggests that kindness and honesty can go hand-in-hand in surprising ways. Unlike Fletcher Reede (Jim Carrey) in the film Liar, Liar, of course, participants in studies cannot be forced to become perfectly honest, and this makes it difficult to study the effects honesty might have on their work and personal lives. But Levine and colleagues approximated the Liar, Liar scenario by asking participants to conduct themselves honestly in every conversation with every person in their life for three days. Before the completing this exercise, participants predicted negative reactions from their conversation partners. They fear that these negative reactions will cause long-term harm to their relationships and careers. But the opposite turned out to be true. Conversation partners reacted more positively than predicted, and participants found that being honest actually strengthened their relationships. Many even said the experience of taking part in the experiment would have a lasting impact on the way they communicate.

Put it in Practice

Here is how to maximize both honesty and kindness the next time you are giving feedback.

Don’t serve the “feedback sandwich.”

As researcher Adam Grant has reminded readers, the traditional “feedback sandwich”—praise followed by criticism and then praise again—is ineffective. The research above helps us see why this is the case. By sandwiching criticism between items of praise, we tend to downplay the importance of the negative feedback and avoid truly discussing it openly.

State your intentions upfront.

Levine and her fellow researchers highlight a study in which feedback was 40% more effective when the person giving it prefaced it with the simple statement, "I'm giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them." The researchers point out that “Though this strategy may seem intuitive, communicators often fail to make their benevolent intentions clear—they seem to forget (at least in the moment) that targets [those they are communicating with] do not have access to this information.”

Offer resources for change.

Instead of attempting to be kind by attenuating or avoiding feedback, show kindness by offering resources that will help your colleague change, grow, and improve. If your colleague has the necessary information, the right emotional support, and a clear plan of action, he or she is much less likely to see your criticism as cruel or harsh.

Managers routinely state that giving feedback—especially negative feedback—is one of the hardest parts of their job. Fortunately, you can approach the task of giving feedback with the knowledge that you can tell the whole truth while maintaining, and even strengthening, your connections with your colleagues.

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Short essay on Truthfulness

Truthfulness is a virtue. It is very easy and often very difficult to be truthful. Ordinarily, by truthfulness we mean speaking truth. But one should be truthful in his words, his thought and his action. If he speaks truth and does the reverse then he is not truthful. Therefore, to be truthful is’ really a very difficult thing.

We believe that there is reward in heaven for our noble deeds. Similarly we are given harsh punishment for our vices and miss-deeds. Truthfulness is a means of getting reward from God. God is omniscient. He observes all our actions. To be truthful is to win the favour of God.

Truthfulness has a deep impact upon our moral character. A truthful person is trusted in every work. He is respected everywhere. Even his children enjoy the result of his virtue of truthfulness. The character of a truthful person shines like gold.

In the Tretaya age, Lord Rarnachandra was truthful. As a Prince he was truthful to His mother’s command. He respected His father’s order and went to the forest for fourteen years by sacrificing the throne of Ayodhya to his younger brother Bharat. He acted truthfully. He even deserted his dear wife Sita being truthful to the impression of the common men in the kingdom.

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In India Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi was a truthful man. He exercised love and non-violence against the British rulers and won freedom for our country. He not only spoke truth, but also acted and thought truthfully. He wore Khadi and told people to wear it. He became mentally upset when any Indian showed violent behaviour to the British ruler. He himself adopted simple living and told others to follow it.

A truthful person like Mahatma Gandhi is never disturbed by fear and anxiety. Fear and anxiety enter the mind of a liar, not a truthful man. His life and character become an example for others. He inspires others to be truthful.

Now-a-days, the meaning of truthfulness has changed. It is a deceptive word today. By trying to be truthful, people are telling half-truths which are more dangerous than pure lie.

For example, the parents of a young boy while trying to negotiate a marriage proposal for him gently declare that they do not want any dowry for their son. The son himself also shows his simplicity. But their real greed for wealth remains hidden in their minds. Immediately after marriage they begin to torture the bride and force her to bring dowry from her parents. Truthful persons never do such thing.

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Meaning of truthful in English

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honest The new MP was refreshingly honest with her constituents.
straight Just be straight with her and tell her how you feel.
sincere He's so sincere that you know exactly where you stand with him.
truthful Are you being truthful with me?
above board
anti-corruption
artlessness
in all honesty/seriousness/truthfulness idiom
in good faith idiom
joking apart/aside idiom
squeaky-clean
straight arrow idiom
straight up idiom
the straight and narrow idiom
transparency

Related words

Truthful | american dictionary, examples of truthful, translations of truthful.

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injury to someone caused by severe cold, usually to their toes, fingers, ears, or nose, that causes permanent loss of tissue

Keeping up appearances (Talking about how things seem)

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Critics Page

Being truthful.

My photographs undergo procedures that are not normally considered proper to good photography. In 2017, for example, I made a photographic portrait of and with my grandmother. It was titled Maternal Line . This photograph deconstructs the exchange that occurs whenever a photographic portrait is made. When we take a photograph of someone, we’re seeking to apprehend something of that person by way of a light-sensitive surface. So, when I asked my grandmother to make her own inscriptions on my 4 by 5-inch negative with her pens, I was asking her to trace herself directly into that surface, without any mediation from a camera. Importantly, this process didn’t subject her to a scrutiny of her appearance. Instead, she was an agent in her own depiction. I also asked her to smear some of her saliva on the film, a trace of her genetic code. I then printed from that negative in a darkroom to make a large color photograph. I could only ask my grandmother to undertake the actions just described because of the intimacy we shared. Isn’t that sense of intimacy something we all seek when we photograph somebody we love? Cameras capture only the appearance of things, an appearance partly determined by the imposition of certain prescribed pictorial conventions. In contrast, the direct recording of the trace of her hand and a sample of her saliva ensured my grandmother was made manifest within and as my photograph. It is a portrayal of her, but also of our relationship. Given photography’s indexical tracing of the being of the world, any complication of its identity also complicates that promised fidelity. Maternal Line ’s wilful disruption of our expectations might seem like a betrayal of photography, but it is also what makes my way of making photographs entirely truthful.

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Essay on Honesty for Students and Children
500+ Words Essay on Honesty. Honesty implies being truthful. Honesty means to develop a practice of speaking truth throughout life. A person who practices Honesty in his/her life, possess strong moral character. An Honest person shows good behavior, always follows rules and regulations, maintain discipline, speak the truth, and is punctual.
The Importance of Being Honest: [Essay Example], 637 words
The Importance of Being Honest. Honesty, a timeless and revered virtue, holds immense significance in our personal lives, relationships, and society as a whole. It is a foundational pillar upon which trust is built, the cornerstone of integrity, and a profound reflection of one's moral character. In an era marked by moral complexities and ...
Essay on Truthfulness
Being truthful is the first step to loyalty, faith and honesty. Because without truth, no loyalty, faith or honesty towards yourself or the other person is possible. ... Although I am a truthful person,but after reading the essay,I will become more truthful than before. Reply. Study Mentor says. February 14, 2020 at 9:47 am. That's Great to ...
Essay on Honesty for Students and Children in English
10 Lines on Honesty Essay in English. The aspect of honesty is essential in our lives. Honesty implies being truthful to others and oneself. Before we are truthful to others, we must be honest with ourselves. If we deny the truth ourselves, there is no way in which we can offer honesty to the world.
12 Reasons Why Honesty Is Important In Life
So, here are 12 good reasons why the value of honesty is beyond measure. 1. It underpins trust in a relationship. Whether you're dealing with a partner, a friend, a family member, or a colleague, when you are honest with that person, they have a reason to trust you. If they know that you are a person of honesty and integrity, they won't ...
Truthfulness
The Importance of Truth. Truth matters, both to us as individuals and to society as a whole. As individuals, being truthful means that we can grow and mature, learning from our mistakes. For society, truthfulness makes social bonds, and lying and hypocrisy break them. If you doubt this, consider what happens when you find out that someone has ...
How Honesty Could Make You Happier
The bottom line is that focusing on honesty is a way to actively engage with the world, versus passively complaining about it. It might even make you feel as if you have gold in your brain. Judi ...
Sample Essay- "The Real Meaning of Honesty"
(Sample Definition Essay) I think it was my mother who taught me the meaning of honesty. Not because she actually was honest, but because she lied all the time. She felt that the easiest way out of any given situation was generally the best way out. And, for her, that generally meant telling a "little white lie."
We Need to Do More Research on Honesty
And that could do two things: (1) connect the dots between related research that wasn't previously linked to honesty since the work didn't focus on deception, and (2) create an entirely new ...
How Being Truthful Gives You A Huge Advantage In Life
Integrity in business leads to trust, loyalty and greater opportunities. Truth in a relationship leads to a deeper bond of love, care, and respect. Curiosity in education leads to a more complete ...
Free Essay Samples on Honesty and Truthfulness
Short Essay About Honesty. honest essay paper example. The saying' honesty is the best policy is probably heard by everyone. However, it is hard to be honest with everyone around, and even more, it takes a lot of courage to be honest with yourself. On the other hand, a parent cannot expect their child to be honest in life if they are not ...
Importance of Being Truthful in Life
A truthful person is committed to speaking and acknowledging the truth, and acting with integrity. While it takes courage to speak the truth without the fear of any consequence, it is by being truthful that we earn respect and love. Satya refers to the meaning of truthfulness in Hindi, where one strives only to speak the truth and nothing else.
GoodTherapy
To Live Your Truth, Start by Being Honest with Yourself. We have been taught from a very young age that honesty is the best policy. We are taught to be honest in all our dealings, big or small. We ...
Three Steps to Teach Children About Honesty
This essay is adapted from The Truth About Lying: Teaching Honesty to Children at Every Age and Stage (APA LifeTools, 2022, 287 pages). When you see the behavior, label it (e.g., "I see you are being truthful about the mistakes you made"). You can give positive appreciation (e.g., "Thank you for being honest about where you were this ...
Essay on Honesty is the Best Policy for Students
500+ Words Essay on Honesty is the Best Policy. Honesty implies being truthful. Honesty means to develop a practice of speaking truth throughout life. A person who practices Honesty in his/her life, possess strong moral character. An Honest person shows good behavior, always follows rules and regulations, maintain discipline, speak the truth ...
Paragraph on Honesty And Truthfulness
Paragraph on Honesty And Truthfulness in 250 Words. Honesty and truthfulness are two important values that everyone should practice. Honesty is all about being truthful, fair, and sincere with actions and words. It means not telling lies, not stealing, and behaving rightly. It is a key to a peaceful life and is a quality that earns respect.
Full article: Honesty and genuine happiness
Honesty as a virtue and necessary condition for genuine happiness. What motivates humans? Philosophers, religious thinkers, economists (Sen, Citation 1977; Smith, Citation 1759) and sociologists (Parsons, Citation 1937; Polanyi, Citation 1944; Weber, Citation 1922) dispute self-interest as an exclusive catalyst.The homo economicus is challenged and restricted by the homo moralis who is ...
Why Honesty Is Often Difficult
At Character Lab, we include honesty as a strength of heart, in the same family as kindness and gratitude. Like other strengths of heart, honesty helps us relate to other people in positive ways ...
Truth Essay for Students and Children in English
Long Essay on Truth is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10. ... Broadly, there are two aspects of truthfulness: being true to others and being true to oneself. The two are not wholly the same thing; however, they are closely linked. Truthful people understand themselves better. They know their strengths and weaknesses, and their successes ...
The Importance of Being True to Yourself
When you are being true to yourself, you are completely honest with what you feel, deeply value, and desire. It also means communicating your feelings wholeheartedly both with yourself and others, allowing your truth to flow through you and into the world. To know your truth fully and express it authentically, you first need to cultivate a deep ...
Be honest or kind? Do you really have to choose?
Most managers struggle to balance honesty with kindness. But research suggests the two may not conflict as often as we think. ... In short, if we think we're being nicer by avoiding difficult conversations or withholding the truth, we're wrong. But the researchers do not recommend simply being brutally honest instead. In fact, they say ...
Short essay on Truthfulness
Short Essays. Truthfulness is a virtue. It is very easy and often very difficult to be truthful. Ordinarily, by truthfulness we mean speaking truth. But one should be truthful in his words, his thought and his action. If he speaks truth and does the reverse then he is not truthful. Therefore, to be truthful is' really a very difficult thing.
TRUTHFUL
TRUTHFUL definition: 1. honest and not containing or telling any lies: 2. honest and not containing or telling any…. Learn more.
BEING TRUTHFUL
Given photography's indexical tracing of the being of the world, any complication of its identity also complicates that promised fidelity. Maternal Line's wilful disruption of our expectations might seem like a betrayal of photography, but it is also what makes my way of making photographs entirely truthful. Contributor
Figures at a glance
How many refugees are there around the world? At least 108.4 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. Among them are nearly 35.3 million refugees, around 41 per cent of whom are under the age of 18.. There are also millions of stateless people, who have been denied a nationality and lack access to basic rights such as education, health care, employment and freedom ...
A Day of Bruising Questions for Cohen, With More Ahead in Trump Trial
Michael D. Cohen, Donald Trump's former fixer and current antagonist, faced a tough cross-examination on Thursday as the defense drilled into his past lies. Mr. Cohen, once known as a hothead ...