Honest IS The Best Policy

 If honesty did not exist, we would have to invent it as the best means to happiness and riches. In all the affairs of life there is no twilight zone of honesty. Things are either right or they are wrong - they are black or they are white.

"Show me the businessman or institutions not guided by service, honesty, and sentiment; by the idea, "he profits most who serves best", and I will show you a man or an outfit that is dead or dying." So advised B. F. Harris. Hope for gain by dishonest means is the beginning of loss.

When approaching a problem, we should strip ourselves of preconceived opinions and prejudice. Doing this enables us to assemble and learn the facts of the situation, make the decision which seems to us to be the most honest, and then stick with it.

Most business problems require common sense instead of legal reference. Problems require honesty and good judgment rather than references to the courts. If this were practiced more in today's business, our courtrooms would not be so crowed and much more business could be transacted for everyone's benefit.

Sir Walter Raleigh said, "It would be an unspeakable advantage, both to the public and private, if men would consider that great truth, that no man is wise or safe, but he that is honest." Those who live by honesty can be sure that there is one less fraud in the world.

It is probable harder to be honest with ourselves than it is to be honest with other people, but honesty is an individual thing and requires that we be honest - especially with ourselves. There are certain requisites for wise and honest living. We must build on hope, not on fear; on justice, not on injustice; on public tranquility, not on violence. We must weave a social fabric in which the most important strands are a devotion to truth and a commitment to doing the right things. There are the essential ingredients of honesty and the good life. The are the necessary conditions for the achievement of freedom and human progress throughout the entire world.