Honesty is the avoidance of knowingly deceiving yourself or others. Honesty means not lying, cheating, or stealing, whether it is done with malicious intent or not. This holds true even in situations where dishonesty seems like the easy way out. Perhaps one of the least considered, and possibly most difficult, aspects of honesty is being honest with oneself. Everyone has moments where lying may seem like the easy way out. Take the little boy who breaks the vase while playing ball in the house after being told not to, for example. When his mother asks what happened, instead of being honest in admitting that he disobeyed her and broke the vase, he lies and tells her that the dog knocked it over. Now when she finds the ball while cleaning up
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Look at a student who 's excited about receiving an A on a test that he cheated on, for example. That student is not only misleading himself into believing he deserves a grade that he did not earn, he might have also missed an opportunity to learn important information. Being honest with oneself includes declining credit where credit is not due; it also means being trustworthy even when nobody 's watching. Consider for a moment a woman who accidentally exits a store with an unpurchased candy bar. She could easily eat the stolen candy bar and move on with her life. After all, it 's only worth a dollar, and no one saw her take it. However, she knows she did not pay for it, and therefore it does not belong to her. Instead of taking the easy way out and enjoying the candy bar, she decides to return to the store and purchase it. Although admitting her mistake may have been embarrassing, the candy bar is now hers to eat. Being honest with oneself means being able to own up to one 's mistakes and admit to being in the wrong; it means self reflecting when one falls short of a goal and evaluating what can be improved upon so that mistakes are not repeated and the next attempt will hopefully be more successful.
A person could write a novel on all of the different aspects of general and self honesty. This essay merely touches on a few essential ideas associated with honesty, but the most important thing to remember is that any act intended to conceal or alter the truth is not one of honesty; rather honesty is being trustworthy and truthful in all aspects of
Look at a student who 's excited about receiving an A on a test that he cheated on, for example. That student is not only misleading himself into believing he deserves a grade that he did not earn, he might have also missed an opportunity to learn important information. Being honest with oneself includes declining credit where credit is not due; it also means being trustworthy even when nobody 's watching. Consider for a moment a woman who accidentally exits a store with an unpurchased candy bar. She could easily eat the stolen candy bar and move on with her life. After all, it 's only worth a dollar, and no one saw her take it. However, she knows she did not pay for it, and therefore it does not belong to her. Instead of taking the easy way out and enjoying the candy bar, she decides to return to the store and purchase it. Although admitting her mistake may have been embarrassing, the candy bar is now hers to eat. Being honest with oneself means being able to own up to one 's mistakes and admit to being in the wrong; it means self reflecting when one falls short of a goal and evaluating what can be improved upon so that mistakes are not repeated and the next attempt will hopefully be more successful.
A person could write a novel on all of the different aspects of general and self honesty. This essay merely touches on a few essential ideas associated with honesty, but the most important thing to remember is that any act intended to conceal or alter the truth is not one of honesty; rather honesty is being trustworthy and truthful in all aspects of