A Quote by Tom Stoppard

Honesty is seldom ingratiating and often discomfiting.

Tom Stoppard

Quote Topics

Honesty Honesty Is Often Seldom

Quote Author

Tom Stoppard
English - Dramatist
Born: July 3, 1937

'Honesty' in social life is often used as a cover for rudeness. But there is quite a difference between being candid in what you're talking about, and people voicing their insulting opinions under the name of honesty.

Judith Martin

I'd written personal essays before, but never on this scale -- never so often and with such, er, honesty. (If by honesty I mean slashing my wrists and hemorrhaging all over the computer screen).

Ayelet Waldman

Honesty is often very hard. The truth is often painful. But the freedom it can bring is worth the trying.

Fred Rogers

I am an idealist. I often feel I would like to be an artist in an ivory tower. Yet it is imperative that I speak to people, so I must desert that ivory tower. To do this, I am a journalist - a photojournalist. But I am always torn between the attitude of the journalist, who is a recorder of facts, and the artist, who is often necessarily at odds with the facts. My principle concern is for honesty, above all honesty with myself.

W. Eugene Smith

Pity a thing often avowed, seldom felt; hatred is a thing often felt, seldom avowed.

Charles Caleb Colton

Shrewdness in public life all over the world is always honored, while honesty in public men is generally attributed to dumbness and is seldom rewarded.

Will Rogers

Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken.

Jane Austen

We may argue eloquently that 'Honesty is the best Policy' - unfortunately, the moment honesty is adopted for the sake of policy it mysteriously ceases to be honesty.

Dorothy L. Sayers

I think country music is about honesty. Any art has to have honesty to start with, as the core of it. I mean, they're just going to manipulate you in one way or the other, but there has to honesty at the core of it.

Tim McGraw

Jason McDermott can be the most ingratiating young man: a born politician.

Bill Dedman

I tend to be the type who is overly polite and sort of ingratiating to other people.

Daniel Clowes

We seldom speak of what we have but often of what we lack.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Integrity, honesty, and honor may not give immediate rewards or gratification, and they can be life-threatening (for example, being a whistle-blower or turning state's evidence). The absence of integrity, honesty, and honor do not always bring punishment or scorn, and can be life-aggrandizing (connivers and cheats often gain power and wealth). Therefore, morality must be its own reward.