Honest People Quotes

There are honest people in the world, but only because the devil considers their asking prices ridiculous. ~ Peter S. Beagle

Especially when you deal with comedy, you have got to be really honest because it's the honesty and the spontaneity that causes people to chuckle, that catches people. ~ Austin Peck

As surely as the Lord has inspired more missionaries to serve, He is also awakening the minds and opening the hearts of more good and honest people to receive His missionaries. ~ Neil L. Andersen

Truly honest people don't have many friends, but they do have real friends ~ Steven Aitchison

But are there many honest people who will admit that it is pleasing to give pain? ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

I know that I need honesty from the people I interview. I also know that the truth is more interesting than made up stuff, and also, people don't connect with you if you're not honest. ~ Neil Strauss

If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. ~ Paulo Coelho

Honest people know that the road to success and virtue always involves shared sacrifice, hard work, and gratification postponed. Telling people otherwise isn't leadership, it is pandering. ~ Eric Liu

But achievements differ in different men. It is not for me, unfortunately so, to build a solid house and live in it the kind of life that is lived in such houses. That is why' - and he began guzzling his wine - 'it is disturbing,' he said. 'Honest people can destroy most effectually such foundations as some of us have. ~ Patrick White

Honest people, mistakenly believing in the justice of their cause, are led to support injustice. ~ Elihu Root

To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author. ~ Charles Caleb Colton

Dishonest people conceal their faults from themselves as well as others, honest people know and confess them. ~ Christian Nestell Bovee

Some honest people think it is better to know the ways of the devil without being evil. ~ Janvier Chouteu-Chando

I belong to an ancient, idle, wild and useless tribe, perhaps I am even one of the last members of it, who for many thousands of years, in all countries and parts of the world, has, now and again, stayed for a time among the hard-working honest people in real life, and sometimes has thus been fortunate enough to create another sort of reality for them, which in some way or another, has satisfied them. I am a storyteller. ~ Isak Dinesen

Truly, you must have been unlucky. H'm! ... that sort of thing mostly comes about through poverty." "And is it any better with the gentry? Even among the poor, honest people live happily. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Just as creativity enables us to envision novel solutions to tough problems, it can also enable us to develop original paths around rules, all the while allowing us to reinterpret information in a self-serving way. Putting our creative minds to work can help us come up with a narrative that lets us have our cake and eat it too, and create stories in which we're always the hero, never the villain. If the key to our dishonesty is our ability to think of ourselves as honest and moral people while at the same time benefitting from cheating, creativity can help us tell better stories - stories that allow us to be even more dishonest but still think of ourselves as wonderfully honest people. ~ Dan Ariely

America seemed like a place for honest people. The United States of America. The land of the free and the home of the brave. The most righteous, politically correct and awesomest country in the world.
It even says "in god we trust" on the dollar bills.
God bless America. ~ Carlito Sofer, Nik Krasno

When I got to the street, I walked boldly. But I was always accompanied by an agonizing thought: the fear that honest people may be thieves who have chosen a cleverer and safer way of stealing. ~ Jean Genet

She knew it the way people say they know they are about to be hit by lightning, yet remain powerless to run, unable to avoid their fate. She panicked, as anyone might have when disparate parts of her life were about to crash into each other, certain to leave a path of anguish and debris. It was true that devotion could be lost as quickly as it was found, which was why some people insisted that love letters be written in ink. How easy it was for even the sweetest words to evaporate, only to be rewritten as impulse and infatuation might dictate. How unfortunate that love could not be taught or trained, like a seal or a dog. Instead it was a wolf on the prowl, with a mind of its own, and it made its own way, undeterred by the damage done. Love like this could turn honest people into liars and cheats, as it now did ... ~ Alice Hoffman

Freedom is for honest people. No man who is not himself honest can be free – he is his own trap. ~ L. Ron Hubbard

There's something wrong in the world,' Sargam said, 'when good people, honest people, can't sleep under a roof or share a meal around a table. ~ Karl Taro Greenfeld

The best safeguard against bad literature is a full experience of good; just as a real and affectionate acquaintance with honest people gives a better protection against rogues than a habitual distrust of everyone. ~ C.S. Lewis

If you are honest, people may deceive you. Be honest anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfishness. Be kind anyway. All the good you do today will be forgotten by others tomorrow. Do good anyway. Amat ~ Fredrik Backman

I think that, you know, this is a different year than most years. We've got to tell the American people that we have to live with less. We have a $13.5 trillion debt. And the only way to do that is an honest campaign with honest people. ~ Ken Buck

Every day, on the roads of Delhi, some chauffeur is driving an empty car with a black suitcase sitting on the backseat. Inside that suitcase is a million, two million rupees; more money than that chauffeur will see in his lifetime. If he took the money he could go to America, Australia, anywhere, and start a new life. He could go inside the five-star hotels he has dreamed about all his life and only seen from the outside. He could take his family to Goa, to England. Yet he takes that black suitcase where his master wants. He puts it down where he is meant to, and never touches a rupee. Why?
Because Indians are the world's most honest people, like the prime minister's booklet will inform you? No. It's because 99.9 percent of us are caught in the Rooster Coop just like those poor guys in the poultry market. ~ Aravind Adiga

There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant. ~ Anatole France

Research tells us liars tend to gesture less, touch less, and move their arms and legs less than honest people (Vrij, 2003, 65). ~ Joe Navarro

Why do villains have so much influence? Because the honest people are terribly dense. ~ Franz Grillparzer

Honest people don't hide their deeds. ~ Emily Bronte

There is a lot of focus on TV, in magazines ... about being skinny and rich. I don't think those are that important. It's much more important for us to be good, honest people that try to help others and live the best life we can. That's where you get your satisfaction ultimately. ~ Laura Evans

HONESTLY ... I believe people are intimidated with truthful/ outspoken people.
HONESTY ... will help you grow and it shows maturity.
HONEST ... people will push you closer towards your destiny. ~ Takina Cupp

There were thieves and hypocrites among us, to be sure, and true saints sprinkled here and there, but most were simply good, honest people who worshiped their Creator the best they knew how. We were a family. ~ Donna Chapman Gilbert

He convinced me that if we're going to have honest government that you can't leave it up to the crooks and that honest people have to get involved in government. So I did. I got involved as a criminal prosecutor with the U. S. Justice Department. ~ Bill Scott

There is more to American politics than fat cats and their political friends. There are serious-minded liberals who fight the good fight on many issues, ecologically oriented politicians who remain true to their cause, and honest people of every political stripe who are not beholden to any wealthy people. But there are not enough of them, and they are often worn down by the constant pressure from lobbyists, lawyers and conventional politicians. ~ G. William Domhoff

Plato argued that good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will always find a way around law. By pretending that procedure will get rid of corruption, we have succeeded only in humiliating honest people and provided a cover of darkness and complexity for the bad people. There is a scandal here, but it's not the result of venal bureaucrats.
(1994) p. 99 ~ Philip K. Howard

Artists, especially writers, great writers, are the most honest people I know. There are deep confessions in their words. And if we're strong enough to expose the spaces between them, we find truths there also. ~ Darnell Lamont Walker

The most that can be said of flattery is that it is sometimes a cheap psychological trick with which charlatans and dishonest people lull others into a state of carelessness while they pick their pockets. ~ Napoleon Hill

Americans are an honest people, we expect a fair deal. I know that a lot of other cultures used to think that was naive and even childish, but it's one of our most sacred principles. ~ Max Brooks

You could not bribe honest people, but bad people would accept bribery. ~ Anne Holm

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald

There are more honest people and more good people than there are thieves and bad people. It's just always been that way. ~ Michael Nesmith

That when given the opportunity, many honest people will cheat. ~ Dan Ariely

I like to keep people around me like the guys I have on the road with me, three of them were childhood friends of mine when I was growing up in Scotland. They don't look at me any different than when we were in primary school. So it's good to keep people like that around you. I think if you surround yourself with good honest people, they will tell you what to hear when you need to hear it. ~ Johnny Reid

Lauga had asked Margret whether she thought there would be an outward hint of the evil that drives a person to murder. Evidence oft he Devil: a herelip, a snaggletooth, a birthmark; some small outer defect. There must be a warning, some way of knowing, so that honest people could keep their guard. ~ Hannah Kent

I am inspired by honest people who don't cheat others. To me the famous are those who are kind to fellow human beings and dedicate their life to charity. ~ Fauja Singh

Since the dawn of history, mankind has honoured and respected brave and honest people. ~ Nelson Mandela

The law courts must appear as a threatening gesture toward secret vice. The bank must declare: here your money is secure and well looked after by honest people. ~ Adolf Loos

Tzu Chang asked Confucius about jen. Confucius said, "If you can practice these five things with all the people, you can be called jen."
Tzu Chang asked what they were.
Confucius said, "Courtesy, generosity, honesty, persistence, and kindness.
If you are courteous, you will not be disrespected;
if you are generous, you will gain everything.
If you are honest, people will rely on you.
If you are persistent you will get results.
If you are kind, you can employ people. ~ Confucius

Her gray, sun-strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires, and I knew that I had to get myself definitely out of that tangle back home. I'd been writing letters once a week and signing them: "Love, Nick," and all I could think of was how, when a certain girl played tennis, a faint mustache of perspiration appeared on her upper lip. Nevertheless there was a vague understanding that had to be tactfully broken off before I was free. Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people I have ever known. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Honest people can disagree on policy. But where there can be no honest disagreement is the need to change our nation's debt course. ~ Jeff Sessions

One percent of people will always be honest and never steal," the locksmith said. "Another one percent will always be dishonest and always try to pick your lock and steal your television. And the rest will be honest as long as the conditions are right - but if they are tempted enough, they'll be dishonest too. Locks won't protect you from the thieves, who can get in your house if they really want to. They will only protect you from the mostly honest people who might be tempted to try your door if it had no lock". ~ Dan Ariely

It's a negative for the country. It implicates dozens of private companies, many of which are made up of honest people. It besmirches the office of the U.S. Senate and is bad for the country's morale. Dishonest politicians hurt all politicians. Americans need to trust their leaders. This would be an ugly investigation ~ Dan Brown

There were honest people long before there were Christians and there are, God be praised, still honest people where there are no Christians. It could therefore easily be possible that people are Christians because true Christianity corresponds to what they would have been even if Christianity did not exist. ~ Georg C. Lichtenberg

Since corrupt people unite amongst themselves to constitute a force, then honest people must do the same. ~ Leo Tolstoy

True courage knows fear. It knows how to fear that which should be feared. Honest people value life passionately, they hang on to it like a precious jewel. And they pick the right time and place to surrender it, to die with dignity. ~ Eiji Yoshikawa

There is a noticeable general difference between the sciences and mathematics on the one hand, and the humanities and social sciences on the other. It's a first approximation, but one that is real. In the former, the factors of integrity tend to dominate more over the factors of ideology. It's not that scientists are more honest people. It's just that nature is a harsh taskmaster. You can lie or distort the story of the French Revolution as long as you like, and nothing will happen. Propose a false theory in chemistry, and it'll be refuted tomorrow. ~ Noam Chomsky

Honest people are never touchy about the matter of being trusted. ~ Ayn Rand

They are all friends of mine and honest people. ~ C.S. Lewis

Irene closed her book and stared at the older Van Holtz.
"I don't dislike him. But that was recent. I used to not like him but he's been very kind since I've been here. So now I like him. I'd almost say we are friendly ... but perhaps that's too big a leap at this stage."
He gave a soft laugh. "I see. Are you always this ... uh ... "
"Brutally honest?"
"I was going to say direct, but brutally honest works as well."
"Yes. I am. And I know - it's a character flaw."
"Not at all. I love honest people."
"Everyone says that ... until I say something they don't like. Then I'm a bitch. ~ Shelly Laurenston

In my experience, honest people don't need to put their hand on a Bible to tell the truth, and with dishonest people, it makes no difference. ~ Paul Levine

I like Scottish people because they feel very true. They're always level and straight. They get a reputation for being hardened because of it, but I find them to be scrupulously honest people. ~ Rupert Friend

It's amazing [ ... ] how perfectly honest people who would starve rather than steal sixpence, will steal books without compunction. ~ Jill Paton Walsh

If people are dishonest once, they will be dishonest a second time. And honest people should keep away from them. (Lady Chiltern) ~ Oscar Wilde

Within the nature of God is a strength that is fashioned in His perfection. Strength flows from the fountain of God's integrity. Honest people are the strongest people. ~ James MacDonald

The way to happiness is by truth. Seek to be true in all things and you will have a foundation to build your future. ~ Shannon L. Alder

I'm not expecting much work in Hollywood, to be honest. People stick to film because they tend to get offered the same roles over and over again, and it's safe. But I'm not interested in doing that. ~ Kim Cattrall

Listen, Stavrogin: to level the mountains is a good idea, not a ridiculous one. I'm for Shigalyov! No need for education, enough of science! There's sufficient material even without science for a thousand years to come, but obedience must be set up. Only one thing is lacking in the world: obedience. The thirst for education is already an aristocratic thirst. As soon as there's just a tiny bit of family or love, there's a desire for property. We'll extinguish desire: we'll get drinking, gossip, denunciation going; we'll get unheard-of depravity going; we'll stifle every genius in infancy. Everything reduced to a common denominator, complete equality. 'We've learned a trade, and we're honest people, we don't need anything else'--that was the recent response of the English workers. Only the necessary is necessary--henceforth that is the motto of the whole globe. But there is also a need for convulsion; this will be taken care of by us, the rulers. Slaves must have rulers. Complete obedience, complete impersonality, but once every thirty years Shigalyov gets a convulsion going, and they all suddenly start devouring each other, up to a certain point, simply so as not to be bored. Boredom is an aristocratic sensation; in Shigalyovism there will be no desires. Desire and suffering are for us. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

You want people who are both great fans and supporters and believers of your work and people who are also ruthlessly honest. People who will tell you the truth about it. Over the years I've picked up some friends and I know who to show what to and they'll give me the proper read. ~ Rob Bell

When managers explain what their plan is without giving the reasons for it, people wonder what the "real" agenda is. There may be no hidden agenda, but you've succeeded in implying that there is one. Discussing the thought processes behind solutions aims the focus on the solutions, not on second-guessing. When we are honest, people know it. ~ Ed Catmull

I don't like nice people. I like tough, honest people. ~ Woody Hayes

I was forced to stretch my thinking, to realize that sincere and honest people could believe in very divergent religious doctrines. ~ Carl Rogers

The personal qualities necessary for attaining office are practically the opposite of those demanded by the office itself. The trouble with the damn system is that it selects for the skills needed to get elected, and nothing else. A test that you can only pass by cheating can't possibly select honest people. ~ James P. Hogan

Want of money and the distress of a thief can never be alleged as the cause of his thieving, for many honest people endure greater hardships with fortitude. We must therefore seek the cause elsewhere than in want of money, for that is the miser's passion, not the thief s. ~ William Blake

Magicians are the most honest people in the world; they tell you they're gonna fool you, and then they do it. ~ James Randi

I'd wish the government took honest people into consideration, it shows enough consideration for scoundrels. ~ Franz Grillparzer

After 'The Matrix,' I cannot wear sunglasses. As soon as I put them on, people recognize me. ~ Carrie-Anne Moss

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone ~ Anonymous

Sometimes I feel limited by people's perceptions of what I can and cannot do, or what I do or don't look like. ~ Mira Sorvino

We want, in fact, not so much a father in heaven as a grandfather in heaven: a senile benevolence who, as they say, "liked to see young people enjoying themselves" and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, "a good time was had by all." ~ C.S. Lewis

I honestly do wonder, without wishing to be morbid, how I reached this present pass. So far as I can ever remember of my youth, I chose the secret road because it seemed to lead straightest and furthest toward my... goal... Today, all I know is that I have learned to interpret the whole of life in terms of conspiracy... These people terrify me, but I am one of them. If they stab me in the back, then at least that is the judgement of my peers. ~ John Le Carre

'Middle class' used to be synonymous with secure, with steady, with boring, because middle-class people were people who were pretty much safe from the time they first started work on through retirement and until their deaths. No longer. ~ Elizabeth Warren

Philanthropic people lose all sense of humanity. It is their distinguishing
characteristic. ~ Oscar Wilde

Consumerism sees the consumption of ever more products and services as a positive thing. It encourages people to treat themselves, spoil themselves, and even kill themselves slowly by overconsumption. Frugality is a disease to be cured. ~ Yuval Noah Harari

Truth is, people will never recognize what has changed within you, what makes you tick, what sets your heart and soul on fire, or what causes a rage within your bloodstream, unless they yearn to understand your soul. ~ Kristin Michelle Elizabeth

My time in the arena made me realize how I needed to stop punishing [my mother] for something she couldn't help, specifically the crushing depression she fell into after my father's death. Because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them. ~ Suzanne Collins

You know, plenty of people headed off to Canada or America on the basis of government information, propaganda campaigns. Often you'd go off with a brochure in hand and you'd turn up and it wouldn't be like that at all. ~ Emma Donoghue

Don't be intimidated by other people's opinions. Only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risks and do what you really want to do. ~ Paulo Coelho

I am telling you, if you ever wanted an ego boost, leave your job and then, six months later, come back for a day. People will treat you like you're a princess. ~ Natalie Zea

A
lot of people think they're born for themselves; I don't think that. I
believe that we're here to help other people all the way through. ~ Walter Breuning

And this is the straight dope, right here. These people are not exactly human. They don the dress but they're like monkeys dolled up in the circus. They're clever and can learn, but that is all. ~ Philip K. Dick

Sometimes I hate this language with its false words like sunset. The sun does not set. It doesn't rise either. It just stays there in one place, yet we get all romantic, huddling on beaches to watch its so-called departure, when it is we who turn away from it, which is a good thing-if the sun could turn, it would never come back, it'd just keep going, look for some better planet to nourish.

Moonlight is another lie. It's a luminescent echo. The moon is a politician whose speeches are written by the sun. I long for a world where witnesses in court must place their hands on a dictionary when they swear. A world where an archer must ask an arrow's permission before loading it into a crossbow. A world with inverted flashlights that shoot out beams of darkness, so you can go to the beach and sabotage sunbathers, rob them of their shine.

A world where people eat animals they wish to emulate. But who the hell am I? I'm just the spark from two people who rubbed their genitals together like sticks in a forest one October night because they were cold. I'm just burning the firecracker at both ends. Every morning I get up and swallow my weirdness pills.

I know the glass is half full, but it's a shot glass, and there are four of us, and we're all very thirsty. I know it's easy not to cry over spilled milk when you've got another carton in the fridge. ~ Jeffrey McDaniel

That's what people respect, the fact that I wasn't a chump that laid on his back and gave up. ~ Mike Tyson

If a Member of the Senate wants to look that veteran in the eyes and say to him or her that they think we cannot afford to help that individual who sacrificed so much for this country have a family, well go do that. Tell that individual that you think we cannot afford to help him or her, but when you do that, I hope you will also tell him why you voted to give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the top 2 percent at a time when the wealthiest people in this country are doing phenomenally well. Virtually all of my Republican colleagues thought it was appropriate to provide huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. ~ Jonathan Tasini

As a teenager and a student, I totally cast away the Christian faith. I just believed it was stupid, and only stupid people could believe it. I actually became an anti-Christian, and very antagonistic. ~ Frederica Mathewes-Green

I just made a movie. There's a kind of a banter that some people might recognize as being screwball. There are no cell phones, no DVD playersit's set in a timeless Brooklyn. Hopefully, it's a good, old-fashioned movie. ~ Michael Showalter

Film is a truly magical medium. You can create illusions of reality, make people think they've seen things that they really haven't - like blowing a guy's head off with a shotgun. ~ Tom Savini

It's hard to reconcile my personal beliefs with an entire institution like the Church or the Republicans. Or with people within those political persuasions who have such different ideologies but confess the same things I confess spiritually. ~ Sufjan Stevens

So he bought tickets to the Greyhound and they climbed, painfully, inch by inch and with the knowledge that, once they reached the top, there would be one breath-taking moment when the car would tip precariously into space, over an incline six stories steep and then plunge, like a plunging plane. She buried her head against him, fearing to look at the park spread below. He forced himself to look: thousands of little people and hundreds of bright little stands, and over it all the coal-smoke pall of the river factories and railroad yards. He saw in that moment the whole dim-lit city on the last night of summer; the troubled streets that led to the abandoned beaches, the for-rent signs above overnight hotels and furnished basement rooms, moving trolleys and rising bridges: the cagework city, beneath a coalsmoke sky. ~ Nelson Algren

I'm constantly warning people that are involved in my life that I can go busk and make a living. I can make my rent in New York City in the subway, I promise, if I'm forced to. ~ Steve Earle

They are going to be playing Shaggy and Scooby-Doo for eons and eons, and they're going to forget Casey Kasem - unless they happen to step on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I'll be one of those guys people say, 'Who's that?' about. And someone else will say, 'He's just some guy who used to be on the radio.' ~ Casey Kasem