40 Honesty Quotes About Telling The Truth — No Matter What
Don't lie.
There is nothing more important in a relationship — regardless of it being romantic or friendly or family-related — than honesty and being truthful. Relationships will fall apart if it’s based on lies and if the people involved can’t be truthful with each other. Sometimes it’s hard to be honest because at the moment, it seems like the possible consequences of a decision and being honest about it might be worse than telling the truth.
Telling the truth is always be the most important thing in our relationships with each other.
People come up with so many excuses to not have to be honest with themselves and others in life. They think that they are sparing everyone else if they hide a truth that might hurt or make someone feel betrayed.
Something frustrating to watch and hear about is that it seems like people who lie have never watched a teenage drama movie or tv show where the main character lies to cover up the hard truth and it always ends badly. If you’re lying to someone in your life, you can almost guarantee that they will eventually figure out the truth and then at that point, it will have been far worse for you to have lied to cover up the difficult reality of the situation rather than telling it to them straight right off the bat.
It’s so much harder to forgive someone for lying than it is to forgive them for their original mistake that they felt the need to lie to cover up. Lying is so intentional and deliberate. There is no excuse for it.
Making mistakes is something that happens every day to people because we are all human and imperfect. It doesn’t make those mistakes any less painful or more okay, but at least you didn’t intentionally try to hide it and cover it up if you tell the truth at the beginning.
If you are ever at an impasse about whether to be honest or lie, use these honesty quotes about telling the truth to point you in the right direction.
1. Lies are enemies.
“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.” — John F. Kennedy
2. Don't let it become the truth.
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” — Vladimir Lenin
3. Can't get rid of that pain.
“The truth may hurt for a while, but a lie hurts forever.” — Unknown
4. It's worth the pain.
“Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie.” — Unknown
5. Even then...
“Don’t lie to me unless you’re absolutely sure that I will never find the truth.” — Unknown
6. Truth hurts.
“Telling the truth and making someone cry is better than telling a lie and making someone smile.” — Unknown
7. Then what good can the truth do at that point?
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” — Unknown
8. Tell the whole truth.
“Half a truth is often a great lie.” — Unknown
9. Your lies will always get discovered.
“I see the truth in your lies.” — Unknown
10. It's not worth everything.
“The truth doesn’t cost anything, but a lie could cost you everything.” — Unknown
11. Don't be that person.
“If you stop telling lies about me, I’ll stop telling the truth about you.” — Unknown
12. Be faster than the lie.
“A lie runs until it is overtaken by the truth.” — Unknown
13. They don't want to deal with consequences if they're smart.
“Fools lie, clever men stick to the truth.” — Unknown
14. It's funny really.
“Nothing better than listening to a lie when you already know the truth.” — Unknown
15. You already know.
“I love listening to lies when I know the truth.” — Unknown
16. It's not comforting in the end.
“Hurt me with the truth but never comfort me with a lie.” — Unknown
17. You can't rebuild that trust very easily.
“Never lie to someone who trusts you. Never trust someone who lies to you.” — Unknown
18. One of the worst inventions.
“Truth exists; only lies are invented.” — Unknown
19. The boy who cried wolf.
“A liar will not be believed even when he speaks the truth.” — Aesop
20. It's always better to tell the truth.
“I can handle the truth. It’s the lies that kill me.” — Unknown
21. Just confess it all.
“A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.” — Mark Twain
22. Once you're a liar in someone's mind, it's hard to come back from that.
“A single lie discovered is enough to create doubt in every truth.” — Unknown
23. Don't lie in the first place and you won't have to deal with it later.
“The truth always comes out in the end, no matter how hard anyone tries to hide it. Lies are just a temporary delay to the inevitable.” — Unknown
24. Nobody should ever feel this way.
“She was so used to lies, that the truth confused her.” — Jeff Hood
25. If you loved them, you wouldn't lie to them.
“Never lie to the people you care about, even if the truth might hurt them. Lying ruins trust.” — Unknown
26. Lying by omission is still a lie.
“A half-truth is a whole lie.” — Yiddish Proverb
27. Don't deny yourself of the opportunities to be great.
“Stop lying to yourself. When we deny our own truth, we deny our own potential.” — Steve Maraboli
28. Stop preferring that.
“Too many prefer gentle lies to hard truths.” — Shane Parish
29. They're just so fast.
“A lie can travel half-way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” — Charles Spurgeon
30. The truth is simply for stability.
“A lie stands on one leg, truth on two.” — Benjamin Franklin
31. But it still tastes disgusting.
“Some ingredients of truth with pure lie makes the perfect lie.” — Suraj Bhaskar Gholap
32. The truth must be protected.
“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” — Winston Churchill
33. The truth will always come out on top.
“A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.” — Edgar J. Mohn
34. Don't lose that ability.
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” — William James
35. Choose well.
“Overcome hatred by love, lie with truth and violence with patience.” — Gandhi
36. You already remember it because it's just the facts.
“The greatest advantage of speaking the truth is that you don’t have to remember what you said.” — Unknown
37. You'll regret it.
“Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.” — Unknown
38. There is more than one truth to each scenario.
“Say not ‘I have found the truth’ but rather ‘I have found a truth’.” — Kahlil Gibran
39. Truth has endurance.
“Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.” — Michael Jackson
40. The truth will always be there.
"Denying the truth doesn’t change the facts.” — Unknown
Hayley Small is a writer who focuses on pop culture, religion and relationship topics.