“Honesty is the best policy.”

Last update June 13, 2021. History

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Benjamin Franklin 183
American author, printer, political theorist, politician, p… 1706–1790

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

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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.

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

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“In all my public and private acts as your President, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end.”

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Ford is known to have used the words "truth is the glue that holds government together" several times prior to this.
1970s, First Presidential address (1974)
Context: I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our Government but civilization itself. That bond, though strained, is unbroken at home and abroad. In all my public and private acts as your President, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end.

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