[lit-ideas] "Honesty Is The Best Policy"
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 11:31:24 EDT
In a message dated 10/13/2004 11:22:32 AM Eastern Standard Time,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
> Well, there's this Anglo saying,
>
> "Honesty is the best strategy, say I"
>
> -- which categorises truth-telling as a utility-maximising maxim, as Kant
> would have it.
Didn't Kant actually say - 'Honesty is _better_ than strategy'?
-----
I have not been able to find the couplet, but it was apparently Richard
Whately -- the Oxford Dict. of Quotations says -- "1787-1863, English
philosopher
and theologian, Archbishop of Dublin from 1831", who wrote:
"Honesty is the beste policy; but he who is governed by that maxim is not an
honest man."
Apophthegms 1854
--- He was surely reading Kant.
Cheers,
JL
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