“Honesty is the best policy — when there is money in it.”

— Mark Twain

Speech to Eastman College (1901)

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Mark Twain 637

American author and humorist 1835–1910

Sean Covey (1964) author; business executive

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide

“Honesty is, honestly, the best policy,” said Saracen. “But when honesty doesn’t work, lie, and lie convincingly.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: The Dying of the Light

“Honesty is the best policy.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

“Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

“In art honesty is not only the best but the only policy.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Razor's Edge

p, 125
The Razor's Edge (1943)

“Honesty is the best policy; a policy is, after all, a strategy for living in the polis — in the city …”

Samuel R. Delany book The Mad Man

Source: The Mad Man (1994), p. 67; ellipses in the original

“Honesty in its widest sense is always admirable. The trite saying that 'honesty is the best policy' has met with the just criticism that honesty is not policy. The seems to be true. The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.”

Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) Confederate general in the Civil War

"Memoirs of Robert E. Lee" by A. L. Long (1886)
1870s

“I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

1790s, Farewell Address (1796)
Context: Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.

“I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly tell our children that honesty is the best policy.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

"Rungs of the Ladder" http://books.google.com/books?id=HLpRc3rm5b8C, BBC Radio broadcast, 11 July 1932
1930s

“Money inspires activity, not honesty.”

Eugene J. Martin (1938–2005) American artist

Annotated Drawings by Eugene J. Martin: 1977-1978

“Honesty is the best policy — when there is money in it.”

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