The Truth of What We Do

There is truth in writing, truth in speaking.

There is also truth in working⎯truth in what we do. Honesty, truth, and integrity are inseparable. Though they are words of slightly different shading, each is a part of the whole complex of character, for a person cannot be said to be truthful if he is not honest also.

“Woe to that mind which [lacks] the love of truth!” wrote William Ellery Channing, “truth is the light of Infinite Mind, and the image of God in his creatures….” There is no greater defect than the lack of “reverential love of truth, a readiness to toil, to life and die for it. Let…man be imbued in a measure with this spirit;…let him learn to regard truth as more precious than his daily bread.”

These are noble and worthy words. But let us for a moment reduce them to tangible everyday terms: Is it truthful in any relationship to give less than fair value? Less work? Less pay? Less service? Less substance? Less consideration?

“Fidelity,” said James Parton, “is seven-tenths of business success.” ⎯and all of us are helpless in the absence of it, for the customer or patron cannot always know what time or material it takes to perform an essential service, or what the intrinsic value is of some substances. We all have to trust at times to the integrity of those who do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Is it truthful to put in parts that are not needed? To charge for what is not used? To do what need not be done? Needlessly to increase cost? To charge for what one does not do? To do less work, to give less service, than the compensation received⎯or to pay less than the work is worth?

These questions do not concern any particular class or occupation or trade or profession, or any particular segment of society. They concern every man in his dealings with every other.

There is no greater essential in business, in the professions, or in any occupation or relationship in life3, than truth and integrity. And truth has to do with the wholeness of man⎯with his fairness, his honor, his honesty⎯in all his life, in all his work, and in all his ways. “Let man’s life be true,” wrote Robert Browning.

To close with a line from Leviticus: “Ye shall not deal falsely.”