Is There a Difference: Truth v. Honesty?

I was watching an ESPN telecast when the host brought on a PR expert in reclaiming one’s reputation.  The subject, obviously, was Roger Clements and his string of lies ever since he was revealed to be a ‘roids monstrosity.

This PR guy said there was a six-step process to recover one’s reputation and that the first two steps were "truth" and "honesty."

"There’s a difference?" I kept thinking.

So I looked up the two words:

Truth is defined as "the true or actual state of a matter" by dictionary.com (the first meaning given).  Honesty is defined, first meaning, as "the quality or fact of being honest; uprightness and fairness."

So, I assume what PR guy meant was that, first, one had to begin telling the truth, and second, one had to adopt a policy of always telling the truth.

I still think the two are redundant since, if you adopt either truth or honesty as a policy, you’ll achieve the same goal.

However, it’s highly unlikely that Roger Clements has any intention of telling the truth or adopting honesty.  Deceit is his only mode other than bullying others.

Categories: Grammar Sucks

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