the.com/honesty
the most expensive policy nobody charges you for, until the bill arrives anyway
means the quality of being truthful, sincere, and free from deceit in word and action.
from From Latin honestas, 'honor, respectability,' built on honos (later honor), 'esteem, dignity.' It arrived in English through Old French honeste in the Middle Ages, and at first leaned toward 'honorable, decent, respectable' more than 'truthful' — a sense still fossilized in the plant called honesty, named for its transparent, coin-like seed pods. The narrowing toward 'not lying' came later, as if the word slowly decided that the most respectable thing a person could do was simply tell the truth.
- brain cost
- Lying burns more cognitive energy than telling truth
- plant namesake
- A flower called honesty grows translucent silver seed pods
- polygraph myth
- Lie detectors measure stress, not truth, and fail often
- radical version
- A 1990s movement urged confessing every thought aloud
- toddler timeline
- Most children learn to lie by age three
george washington cherry tree — apocryphal story about young washington confessing to cutting down his father's tree, became america's honesty parable
diogenes the cynic — 4th century bce greek philosopher who valued radical honesty and lived ascetically in athens to demonstrate virtue
whistleblowers edward snowden — nsa contractor who revealed classified surveillance programs in 2013, prioritized honesty over government secrecy