QuoteProject
A person who is fundamentally honest doesn't need a code of ethics. The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount are all the ethical code anybody needs.
Harry S. Truman
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

True honesty comes from within and does not rely on external rules.

Harry S. Truman's quote emphasizes that a genuinely honest person acts according to their nature, suggesting that the principles guiding ethical behavior are already inherent within them. Instead of relying on external codes or doctrines, such as the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount, the honest individual will intuitively embody these moral teachings in their actions and decisions.

Themes

HonestyEthicsCodeIntegrityMorality

In practice

Example use cases

A speaker at a leadership conference might use this quote to emphasize the importance of personal integrity.

More from Harry S. Truman

May the sun never set on American baseball.
Harry S. TrumanRead
Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.
Harry S. TrumanRead
Herbert Hoover once ran on the slogan, 'Two cars in every garage'. Apparently, the Republican candidate this year is running on the slogan, 'Two families in every garage'.
Harry S. TrumanRead
The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all.
Harry S. TrumanRead
I never would have agreed to the formulation of the Central Intelligence Agency back in forty-seven, if I had known it would become the American Gestapo.
Harry S. TrumanRead
I would rather have peace in the world than be President.
Harry S. TrumanRead

Similar quotes

One of the more difficult tasks for me as president was to decide on the issue of confirming capital punishment awarded by courts... to my surprise... almost all cases which were pending had a social and economic bias.
A. P. J. Abdul KalamRead
Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.
Ayn RandRead
Drink! for you know not when you came, nor why; Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.
Omar KhayyamRead
All over Harlem, Negro boys and girls are growing into stunted maturity, trying desperately to find a place to stand; and the wonder is not that so many are ruined but that so many survive.
James A. BaldwinRead
Man has the power to act as his own destroyer - and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.
Elon MuskRead
I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.
Isaac Bashevis SingerRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.