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Is Honesty the Best Policy?

Charlie S
Is honesty always good for you? This is really a million-dollar question. Let us discuss the topic in detail.
Since our childhood, we are taught the importance of honesty and why we should be honest. We do try our level best to be honest to our parents, teachers, friends, and almost everybody with whom we meet.
However, when we come to know how dishonesty helped some people achieve great things quickly and in a better way than us, we tend to go the wrong way for quick success. This, often results in creating problems for these people, which sometimes cannot be solved at all.

Importance of Honesty

Honesty is essential in each and everything we do to create a good impression and to let the other people we know that we are capable and trustworthy.
Whether you are a student, a teacher, a doctor, a business person or an employee, honesty takes a person a long way in the journey of life. Even if you find it difficult to perform well at your place of work or in studies, honest and sincere people are given many chances to prove themselves in their fields.
In case of dishonest people, a second chance is very rare to come because the society feels that he will keep on repeating his mistakes.
One can gain respect in the society only by being honest. People adore only those who make consistent hard efforts to achieve their targets and overcome all the obstacles which may come in their way.
Resorting to any kind of dishonest behavior such as corruption, using malpractices or deceiving others can permanently ruin our public image. If this happens, then such people will not have the courage to face those people who are honest and this will result into being isolated and thrown away from society.
By staying aloof and lonely, the overall progress and personal development of dishonest people gets affected, and thus giving rise to the feelings of frustration, anger, and discontent. These feelings are such that they drive a person to committing a crime or a wrong thing again.
Thus, once we enter the vicious circle of dishonesty, it becomes very difficult to come out of it and lead a normal life. Instead of living a life under constant fear, we can live it with pride and honor with our head held high.
Thus, being dishonest for a small gain is really not worth in the long term perspective considering the evils through which we have to go once we drift away from the right path.
There are several examples of people whose lives have been ruined because they were dishonest. As they say - slow and steady wins the race, so be true to yourself and to others by being honest and stop making attempts to make it big in life in a short period.
Dishonesty can result into severe punishments such as imprisonment and in the process, people end up losing the most precious days of their lives in fighting legal battles.
Sometimes there is also the other sign of the coin which we should consider. Sometimes, there are situations wherein you have to be dishonest to save yourself or someone else when we know that the person is innocent.
In such cases, speaking lies may not come under 'dishonesty' as we are not doing anything wrong. Thus, it depends entirely on the situation, and intelligent people realize and know how to deal with a difficult situation by not compromising on their principles and ideals.
However, a dishonest way to protect yourself should not be made a habit and you should recall the values taught to you, if you feel like going with the wrong way by proper self-control.
Thus, we conclude that honesty is the way to enjoy a good and respectable life. Honesty indeed takes a person to the level where he deserves to be.