ADVANTAGES
OF HONESTY
When Lord Gautam Buddha (563 BCE—483BCE) laid emphasis on eightfold
path of ---- right view, right mindfulness, right intention, right speech,
right concentration, right effort, right action and right livelihood, he showed
the way to honest living in this world. This approach to existence, according
to him, was the key to achieving
liberation from the painful cycle of rebirth, which is a form of nirvana.
Honesty stands for truth,
integrity, sincerity, loyalty, fairness, reliability, uprightness,
trustworthiness, truthfulness, and credibility.
It has many advantages. Some of these are ---- peace of mind,
fearlessness, good health, sound sleep, unperturbed conscience , spiritual strength,
public respectability, legal protection, moral prestige, professional honour
and closeness to God.
Honesty, like truth, fears no examination. It may not make
one materially rich but does make him morally wealthy.
An honest man, said the English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744),
is the noblest work of God.
The English poet-playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
said : To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten
thousand.
The Greek philosopher Socrates (died 15 Feb 399 BC) believed:
The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in
reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human
virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of
them.
The English politician and philosopher Anthony Ashley Cooper,
3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (1672-1713) said: A grain of honesty and
native worth is of more value than all the adventitious ornaments, estates, or
preferments, for the sake of which some of the better sort so oft turn knaves.
Finally, the following quote by the America clergy and writer
Charles Simmons (1798-1856} :
True honesty takes into account the claims of God as well as those
of man; it renders to God the things that are God’s, as well as to man the
things that are man’s.
*******
G.R.Kanwal
29 March 2025
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