If Everyone Must Watch Everyone…

There is an old-fashioned subject on which something needs to be said, and that is: simple honesty. There can be no credit, no contract, no transaction, no safe situation without the element of honesty.

If no one does what he says he will do, no one could count on anything. If everyone has to worry about everything he owns, everything he has, watch it, guard it, almost sit on it in a sense, the world wouldn’t run, and life would approach the impossible.

Nobody can watch everybody all the time. Nobody can watch anybody all the time. No one can stay awake all the time. No one has the ability to protect himself against all forms of deception and deceit.

No one can know enough in all things always to make safe decisions, and so we have to trust others. We have to trust the doctor for his prescription, the pharmacist who fills it. We have to trust the person who makes things, who sells things and certifies that they are of a certain kind and quality. Few of us, for example, could buy a diamond and know what it was worth. We have to trust someone.

If we can’t find a package where we put it; if a car on the street isn’t safe; if expense accounts are padded; if we can’t leave a piece of equipment with someone to repair, and know he will do only what is needed, and charge only what is fair; if people increasingly deal in deception, there will be less and less peace and progress.

There is more to this than robbery or burglary or embezzlement. Any deception is dishonest: overcharging, getting paid for what we haven’t done, taking what isn’t ours, saying what isn’t so, pretending to be what we aren’t, reporting what we haven’t done, saying we have seen what we haven’t seen⎯all this is dishonest. In short, if everyone must watch everyone, if no one can trust anyone, there is no safety for anyone.

If it isn’t true, don’t say it. If it isn’t right, don’t do it. If it isn’t yours, don’t take it. If it belongs to someone else, return it. Honesty is not only the best policy, but an absolute essential for the good and happy living of life.