“When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth” – Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
Honesty is deeply rooted in philosophy, our religions and the character of our nation’s greatest leaders. It is both a value and virtue and considered integral to principles such as integrity and trustworthiness. Honesty is indeed foundational to the individual character of leaders worth following and emulating. Such men and women are characterized by truthfulness with themselves, their bosses, their peers and those they lead.
In this post I simply want to explore a few of honesty’s strongest roots through history. Each of these roots is worth its own blog, but my purpose here is to remind us of the historical breadth and depth of admonitions to be honest.
As we explore honesty we encounter truth and lies, which are so tightly connected to the meaning and definitions of honesty. In looking back over many writings regarding honesty, dishonesty, truth and lies I was reminded of the compelling need for honesty and the ease with which communities and nations have justified an initial step away from truthfulness. Simple rationalizations to ignore truth were often easy to grasp as groups began to slide away from this moral foundation. When they “suddenly” found themselves in dire and unimaginable circumstances, it really wasn’t so sudden. Rather, the new circumstance was the harvest from planting seeds of dishonesty and lies. But that is a post for another day.
It is always good to begin with a few basic definitions in today’s language before diving into origins:
Philosophy and Religion
We can draw a fairly straight line from some of our earliest philosophers, Plato through Aristotle, to the large monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and into the writings and speeches of our founding fathers regarding the importance of truth, opposition to lies and lying, and the virtue of honesty in daily living.
In Plato’s Republic, Book II, 382a-382d he discusses truth and lies in the construct of “the true lie”. He writes a dialogue in which Socrates is quoted “Do you not know, I said, that the true lie, if such an expression may be allowed, is hated of gods and men?” Joshua Mark, in Ancient History Encyclopedia, describes this concept. “Lie in the soul, a falsehood that one accepts as truth at a fundamental level, which then distorts one’s interpretation of reality…and one’s own vision of self and truth.” In other words, lying to oneself or believing the lies of others, impacts how we see ourselves and see truth. Hence Socrates belief that “true lies are hated by gods and men.”
Moving forward to Judaism and Christianity, we find admonitions against lying and for honesty throughout the Old Testament of the Bible. The ninth of the Ten Commandments is the moral imperative “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16 NIV). Leviticus 19:11 further solidifies this point as Moses repeated the words of God to the Israelites “Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another”.
Readers who attended a senior military school will recognize the origins of their honor codes in this text. As a student and cadet at Texas A&M University we knew our honor code by heart and were challenged to live up to this standard: “An Aggie does not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those who do.”
Two affirmative examples from Jewish and Christian literature (italics are mine). Proverbs 12:22 teaches that “The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.” A second, “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body” is found in Ephesians 4:25.
The third large monotheistic religion, Islam, also has prohibitions against lying and admonitions for truthfulness. An example is recorded when The Prophet said: “You must be truthful. Verily truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to paradise. A man continues to be truthful and encourages honesty until he is recorded with Allah as truthful. And beware of falsehood. Verily, falsehood leads to wickedness and wickedness leads to the hellfire. A man continues to tell lies and encourages falsehood until he is recorded with Allah as a liar. (Muslim, Sahih Muslim, 4:2103 #2607)
Other religions also admonish followers to be truthful. One example is found in The Dhammapada Verse 224, which quotes Buddha saying “One should speak the truth, one should not yield to anger, one should give when asked even if it is only a little. By means of these three, one may go to the world of the devas.”
The Founding and Civil War Era of the United States
Writings about honesty and truth did not end with ancient philosophers and early religious teachings. Sir Edwin Sandys gave us the saying “Honesty is the best policy” in his 1599 work Europae Speculum. The phrase has resonated with meaning and repetition in the centuries since. Two hundred years later President George Washington used the phrase in his 1796 Farewell Address saying, “I hold this maxim to be no less applicable to public than private life, that honesty is the best policy.” Earlier, 1788 he had written to Alexander Hamilton that “I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.” (George Washington, Letter to Alexander Hamilton, August 28, 1788, Quotable George Washington: An A-Z Collector’s Edition of Quotes, Ayres, Leader Handbook.com, 2013)
During the same period Washington emphasized honesty and Thomas Jefferson wrote that “honesty is the 1st chapter in the book of wisdom” (Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, January 12, 1819) other philosophers also tackled the topic. Central among these was Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher who lived from 1724-1804. The influential Kant believed that lying is always morally wrong. Santa Clara University’s Tim Mazur wrote that “Kant argued that all persons are born with an “intrinsic worth” that he called human dignity.” Using this line of thought, Kant argued that lying harms human dignity and robs individuals of their freedom to choose rationally.
Many Americans also point to Abraham Lincoln when thinking about honesty. Lincoln earned the nickname “Honest Abe” for his dealings with customers as a young store clerk in Springfield Illinois. He was known to shut down the store to return change to customers if he found they had been overcharged. He was characterized throughout his life by living up to his nickname, even though one can find exceptions.
A 2017 article by Jackie Mansky described an incident in which Lincoln felt it so important that a biographical sketch of him be true that he read “Plutarch’s Lives” to make it so. He saw the author had written that Lincoln had studied the book as a young man. He informed the author “…but I want your book, even if it is nothing more than a campaign sketch, to be faithful to the facts; and in order that that statement might be literally true, I just secured the book a few days ago…I have just read it through.” There are more significant examples of Lincoln’s drive to be honest, but this story captures his attention to even small details.
“I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God”
Truthfulness underpins legal systems throughout history, including our own. One can easily find references to voluntary truth telling oaths, “usually involving the penalty of divine retribution for intentional falsity” as a common thread through civilizations. The Encyclopedia Britannica summarizes the origins concisely going back to the Sumerian civilization (4th-3rd millennia BC), the Hittite Empire of the 14th-13th centuries BC, and Eastern religions such as Hinduism. One can just as easily find such oaths in Roman law, early British law and of course United States law.
If individuals and communities become unable to trust one another with facts, to tell the truth, and to hold others accountable for demonstratable falsehoods, then the entire concept of the “rule of law” begins to crumble. If a group becomes unable to discern the truth, or perhaps unwilling to recognize the truth, the group becomes easily manipulated by those who may offer appealing narratives.
Remember the fraud of both Enron executives and Bernard Madoff? In both cases business leaders told tales of grand returns to win over investors. Employees and potential investors believed these reports of corporate value and individual wealth accumulation. But in the end, these trusted leaders and friends to many of the victims, had become scam artists who felt no need to be truthful. They were enabled by the very believers whose money, and in many cases whose life savings, they stole.
Investors and employees wanted to believe in the great financial returns promised. However, wanting it, believing it, and investing money to capture it, did not make those returns real or protect investors from eventual financial loss and even ruin. The lies were lies, despite the true believer’s fervent faith. It was only in court, where countless witnesses swore to tell the truth, that we learned the extent of the deceit and con.
Essential Virtue
Honesty is often hard, but necessary. Our society is based on the rule of law and common good. Just as Plato wrote that the “true lies are hated by gods”, our nations founders also believed strongly that honesty is a virtue to strive for and be characterized by. These philosophers and leaders provide a great thought roadmap we can use to explore examples of honesty and dishonesty, truthfulness, lying and deceit in the future. Honesty is not just the best policy, it is essential to the fabric and success our society and nation.
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3 thoughts on “Honesty: An Essential Virtue”
Essential. For all the reasons given and validated by historical record here. Essential. It’s why I find today’s politics even more difficult…truth and honesty distorted by what some call their own facts, alternate facts. So which is true? I think we know, or can find out what are the lies, cheats, steals if we want to. Awesome writing Tim…thank you for this thoughtful piece. Honesty, an essential virtue…a truth that enables all else across our lives.
I agree that we can likely discover “the truth” in many cases if we want to and are willing to invest the time in the effort. It has also felt like there is an additional challenge is the sheer volume of competing claims and the seeming “demands” that falsehoods be disproven. I remember the time when new claims, whether in science, business or politics, had to be be proven. Today it often feels as if honesty is not as important as the size the of someone’s megaphone–the means of amplifying their claim. This flip of the script places a significant burden on those engaged in the conversation and can easily become exhausting. I think your comment is a good place to start my next post..
Howdy,
I found myself digging deep into Kant thinking when I taught the Engineering Ethics course. I found his logic line was most comfortable for bridging to the engineering minds.
You have highlighted a twist in operation in that a true-true situation must now be validated and proven while a false-true is often now believed just by speaking and furthermore, seemingly cannot be proven as false to those that have convinced themselves of the trueness.
Keep writing,
RB