A Quote by Mark Twain

Honesty is often the best policy, but sometimes the appearance of it is worth six of it.

Mark Twain

Quote Topics

Appearance Best Honesty Honesty Is Often Policy Six Sometimes The Best Policy Worth

Quote Author

Mark Twain
American - Writer
November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910

There are people who think that honesty is always the best policy. This is a superstition. There are times when the appearance of it is worth six of it.

Mark Twain

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

Honesty is not necessarily the best policy. The best policy would be to acquire a reputation for honesty and then to cheat at the psychological moment.

William Lyon Phelps

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

The trite saying that honesty is the best policy has met with the just criticism that honesty is not policy. The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.

Robert E. Lee

Honesty may not be the best policy, but it is worth trying once in a while.

Richard M. Nixon

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

George Carlin

In the long run, I believe that honesty is definitely the best policy. One can get away by being dishonest for a short term, but ultimately, honesty is what pays.

Kapil Dev

Honesty is the best policy ; a policy is, after all, a strategy for living in the polis in the city.

Samuel R. Delany

Certainly he is not of the generation that regards honesty as the best policy. However, he does regard it as a policy.

Walter Lippmann

In business sharp practice sometimes succeeds, but in art honesty is not only the best but the only policy.

W. Somerset Maugham

As to the permanent interest of individuals in the aggregated interests of the community, and in the proverbial maxim, that honesty is the best policy, present temptation is often found to be an overmatch for those considerations.