George Washington Honesty Quotations

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

Honesty will be found on every experiment, to be the best and only true policy; let us then as a Nation be just.

Honesty is always the best policy.

It is an old adage that honesty is the best policy-this applies to public as well as private life-to States as well as individuals.

Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your reputation. Be not apt to relate news, if you know not the truth thereof. Speak no evil of the absent, for it is unjust. Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to keep your promise. There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth, and pursue it steadily. Nothing but harmony, honesty, industry and frugality are necessary to make us a great and happy nation.

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