Sydney J. Harris Quotes

it's always best to tell the truth.

A man will pass better through the world with a thousand open errors upon his back than in being detected in one sly falsehood. When one is detected, a thousand are suspected.

Honesty has always been an integral part of my operation, really.

The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.

No matter what you do, be honest. That sticks out in Washington.

Personally I've never put much store by honesty- I mean how can you trust a word whose first letter you don't even pronounce

honesty is hard work.

Make a habit of telling the truth, or make a habit of lying: to decide each case on its own merits is exhausting, and hardly ever worth it.

Honesty is often the best policy, but sometimes the appearance of it is worth six of it.

They say that in Hollywood one can't be honest, but I think honesty counts in Hollywood just as much as it does anywhere else. I think it's just too much trouble to be dishonest and keep up with yourself.

I would say that today, dishonesty is the rule, and honesty the exception. It could be, statistically, that more people are honest than dishonest, but the few that really control things are not honest, and that tips the balance.

Lies don't fix things. They don't even make things easier, at least not in the long run. Best to tell the truth and then clean up an honest mess.

Since in the long run deception is likely to be found out, your character had better not only seem good, but be it.

Corruption wins not more than honesty.

In matters of honesty, there are no shortcuts; no little white lies, or big black lies, only the simple, honest truth spoken in total candor... Being true is different than being honest.

In the last few years, the very idea of telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is dredged up only as a final resort when the alternative options of deception, threat and bribery have all been exhausted.

I don't really lie about anything, I have to be honest. I like to live with the truth.

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.

Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity, than straightforward and simple integrity in another.

I can't tell a lie - not even when I hear one.

I've tried to do away with lying in my life in the last few years, but it's hard.

[Ross Perot] thinks that proclaiming honesty is the same as being honest.

[Defining an honest politician:] ... a bastard who will stay bought.

By and large, our leaders don’t lie to us.

I really think that people never go wrong by telling the truth.