An essay on why honesty is the best moral virtue
Honesty is one of the most important moral virtue. We all have heard that honesty is the best policy. But why honesty is the best policy and why it is important to be an honest person has been explained in this short essay. It also gives briefs about why is honesty ignored.
Introduction
Earlier people were very honest with each other, and they cared for each other. Earlier children learn moral values and virtues in Gurukul, where it was the main subject. The first lesson taught to them was moral values and virtues. Education started with moral values and virtues only. Teachers spent lots of time developing moral values among students. But now the time has changed. People do not care about moral values. Nowadays, people are so busy with their work that they can not pay attention to anything. Everyone is competing to move forward, and even student life is so much stressed that they do not pay attention to moral values and virtues. Parents are busy with their jobs, and teachers remain busy completing the syllabus and other schools/college activities. But developing moral values and virtues is very important. Honesty must be developed in the children from the beginning.Why honesty is ignored?
When we want to escape from some difficult situations, we take the help of a lie and save ourselves. In the short run, it may help. But in the long run, we will have to make some extra efforts to maintain that lie. It is very common to tell a lie among children and elders. Children start telling lies from a very early age and also lie very frequently. People usually lie in many situations, like when they want to hide something, or they want to exaggerate something or to save themselves or to get the attention of others or for experimental purposes or to hurt someone.
Why honesty is the best policy?
Honesty is the product of truth and trust. It also promotes authenticity. As it is simple and does not require too much effort and support, hence, considered the best policy. It gives strength to face every difficult situation.Why honesty is important?
There are several benefits to being honest. It helps us in several ways:
When you do not lie to anyone, you will not feel shy or feared, and you will get the courage to tell the truth in front of anyone. Hence, it also develops bravery.
By being honest, you will seem to be mature in the eyes of others, and people will believe in your saying, and it will increase your acceptance among them.
Honesty is the foundation of trust. A person can develop strong relationships with others if he has faith in them. Other people also trust him. They would like to hear from him and also believe his promises.
If you are honest, you will be adorable to all. Everybody will admire you. If anyone is dishonest, still sometimes he may be successful but as soon as the truth will be revealed and his dishonesty will become unwrap, everybody will criticize and hate him.
When you are honest, you will have no stress, and you will have a calm mind. Hence, you can concentrate on things. When you lied to anyone, it will save you at that time only. But when the truth will come out, it will create more problems for you. And being dishonest or telling a lie about a thing may vanish your peace of mind and may leave you unhappy and lifetime guilty. Hence, you should be honest to live a happy and peaceful life.
If a person tells a lie, it might be possible that he will have to lie out again and again to cover the first lie. Which also needs lots of explanations. While with truth no explanation is required, hence, it saves time. How can honesty be developed among students?
Honesty and other virtues come from our roots and are easy to develop in childhood and student life. Honesty must be developed in the children from homes by parents and in the schools by teachers. It can be developed in children in several ways by rewarding their truth and honesty and praise them for their good behaviours it will build their confidence. They must be taught not to tell a lie in any circumstances. They must be taught to tell the truth even it hurts others and feels a hard truth. We should also always tell the truth in front of them so that they will get motivated. Teachers and parents should guide them not to make untruthful praises and tell them the bad effects of such things. So that they will be aware and learn how to control the words while speaking. They must learn that wrong is always wrong, and it cannot replace the truth. And in the long run, truth always wins over untruth. Students must be given examples and must be told about the consequences of being dishonest. It is also important that they must be told that if they will lie to anyone or do something wrong with anyone, one day they will be caught and will be punished. In case if they are caught being dishonest, they must be taught the importance of honesty.
Conclusion
We can say that honesty is nothing but being truthful in your entire life. It is not limited to telling truth only, but it also includes accepting our mistakes and correct them. Apart from this, a person is honest if he speaks the truth, maintains discipline, has patience, shows good behaviour with others and is punctual. Being an honest person is the biggest compliment and the best award one can achieve in his life, which makes his life happiest of all. Practising honesty throughout life leads to the building of good characters, which helps in becoming successful in life.
As mentioned by the author one should start to develop honesty during childhood itself, The responsibility will be with the parents and the teachers. There are many ways to encourage people to be honest.
Generally, when some children tell lies it is our habit to scold them. But we never appreciate the child who tells us the truth. If we start appreciating the children who always tell truth only, they will get motivated. By hearing this the other students will also get motivated to be honest. Another point we should keep in mind is that we should not give a chance to the child to be dishonest. We should tell them the consequences of being dishonest so that they will have a fear to be dishonest. We have to tell then various stories from our epics and history wherein how people struggled in their lives to be honest and ultimately how much fame and the name they got. These stories will definitely motivate them to be honest. As a child, if some mistake is committed by him, we should tell him the consequences of his actions. We should follow whatever we are teaching them and we should be role models to them. Then they will have faith in your words and try to follow your suggestions. Initially, they may find it difficult, But once they are accustomed to these practices they will be really honest and they can train other children in this aspect.