Honorable speech is presented as expression that can be trusted because it does not depend on concealment, manipulation or a second hidden meaning.
The Simple Life, Chapter IV, “Simplicity of Speech,” Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; Wagner contrasts honorable speech with duplicity.
“The liar is no whit better than the thief.”
Roosevelt argues that criticism loses moral legitimacy when it becomes false, making truthfulness a constraint on reform even when the target of criticism may deserve scrutiny.
The Man with the Muck-Rake, April 14, 1906. Roosevelt is discussing public criticism, journalism and slander; the surrounding speech simultaneously calls for relentless exposure of genuine wrongdoing when the attack is truthful.
“In all you speak, let truth and candor shine.”
Pope treats candor as part of good judgment: accurate criticism should also be spoken with integrity and fairness.
An Essay on Criticism, in the section describing the moral duties of a critic.
“Lying is the sacrifice of honor to create a wrong impression.”
The sentence defines lying through intended deception: honor is traded away in order to make another person believe something the speaker knows is false.
The Power of Truth, opening chapter, Project Gutenberg #56020; Jordan contrasts truthful dealing with deliberately creating a false impression.
“What he says has the ring of sincerity, the hallmark of pure gold.”
Sincerity is presented as a recognizable quality of speech that grows from consistency between what a person knows, believes and chooses to say.
The Power of Truth, opening chapter, Project Gutenberg #56020; the “pure gold” comparison belongs to Jordan’s description of sincere speech.
“Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength.”
The claim values genuine conviction over calculated pose in literary work, while allowing that sincere writers can still be factually or critically mistaken.
The Principles of Success in Literature, discussion of sincerity, Project Gutenberg #10420; preserved as Lewes’s literary-critical principle rather than a universal law.
“His honesty is not policy.”
Honesty is distinguished from strategy: a person of character tells the truth because it is right, not merely because truthfulness happens to be advantageous.
The Power of Truth, opening chapter, Project Gutenberg #56020; Jordan rejects the phrase “honesty is the best policy” as too transactional.
