“I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.”
More from George Washington on Wisdom
“There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy”
“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.”
“Be courteous to all but intimate with few and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.”
“Be courteous to all but intimate with few and let those few be well-tried before you give them your confidence.”
“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company.”
“To persevere in one's duty and be silent is the best answer to calumny.”
“Undertake not what you cannot perform but be careful to keep your promise.”
“Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation for it is better to be alone than in bad company.”
“Let your Discourse with Men of Business be Short and Comprehensive.”
“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
Others on Wisdom
Sun Tzu
30 quotes“A clever general, therefore, avoids an army when its spirit is keen, but attacks it when it is sluggish and inclined to...”
Dalai Lama
22 quotes“A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering.”
Cervantes
20 quotes“Honesty's the best policy.”
Aesop
19 quotes“Do not waste your pity on a scamp.”
Confucius
19 quotes“If a man take no thought about what is distant he will find sorrow near at hand.”
Ben Franklin
18 quotes“Never ruin an apology with an excuse.”
Napoleon
16 quotes“One must change one's tactics every ten years if one wishes to maintain one's superiority.”
Cicero
15 quotes“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
Khalil Gibran
14 quotes“A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.”
Rudyard Kipling
14 quotes“One paid for one's knowledge with one's skin.”
William Penn
14 quotes“Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be...”
George R.R. Martin
14 quotes“A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad act the good. Each should have its own reward.”