#honesty

Arraigned at my own bar, Memory having given her evidence of the hopes, wishes, sentiments I had been cherishing since last night-- of the general state of mind which I have indulged for nearly a fortnight past; Reason having come forward and told in her own quiet way , a plain, unvarnished tale, showing how I had rejected the real, and rabidly devoured the ideal;-- I pronounced judgment to this effect:-- That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life: that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed the poison as if it were nectar. ↗

— Charlotte Brontë

#lies #life

I’d rather have a cup of coffee and a cigarette than live in all that honesty. ↗

— Benjamin Alire Sáenz

#life #life

I received your letter of June 10th. I have never talked to a Jesuit priest in my life and I am astonished by the audacity to tell such lies about me. From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist. ↗

— Albert Einstein

#honesty #integrity #secularism #life

But as to your writing me that I don’t love you very much, I don’t know whether you’re saying this in earnest or whether I should realise that you’re joking with me. Still, what you say disturbs me. You are measuring a very healthy expression of a wife’s loyalty by the standard of the insincere flattery of well-worn phrases. But I shall love you, my husband. What does it mean to you that you reassure me with those trivial little compliments? Do you want me to believe that you expect me to comb my hair in a stylish fashion for your homecoming? Or to feign adoring looks with a painted face? Let women without means, who worry and have no confidence in their virtue, flutter their eyelashes and play games to gain favour with their husbands. This is the adulation of a fox and the birdlime of deceitful bird hunting. I don’t want to have to buy you at such a price. I’m not a person who lays more stock in words than duty. I am truly your Laura, whose soul is the same one you in turn had hoped for. ↗

— Laura Cereta

#laura-cereta #letters #romance #truth #love

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#honesty #integrity #lying #trust #integrity

As long as we only have to lie to the enemy, it's honest enough for me. -Captain Tagon ↗

— Howard Tayler

#honesty #humour #military #military

Masks beneath masks until suddenly the bare bloodless skull. ↗

— Salman Rushdie

#honesty #mask #people #satan

Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize? ↗

— Marcus Aurelius

#honesty #self-awareness #meditation

In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility. ↗

— Robert McKee

#honesty #liars #lies #social-responsibility #art

Art, whose honesty must work through artifice, cannot avoid cheating truth. ↗

— Adrienne Rich

#artifice #avoid #cannot #cheating #honesty