Honesty means speaking the truth and being fair and upright in act. He who lies and cheats is dishonest; those who gain fortunes not by hard labour but by other means is dishonest.

Honesty is a good virtue¹. If you are honest all the time,you’ll be trusted and respected by others. A liar³ is always looked down upon and regarded as a black sheep by the people around. Once you lie, people will never believe you even if you speak the truth.

However, in the tide of commodity economy today, it seems that more and more people believe in money at the sacrifice of honesty. To them, among such things as health, beauty, money, intelligence, honesty, reputation and talent, honesty is the only thing that can be erased⁴ away. They don’t understand or pretend not to understand that honesty is the biggest fortune human beings own, and that it is the prerequisite⁵ for doing everything well. I think these people are to be pitied.

In short, honesty is gold. Honest, your reputation will become great; dishonest, your name will be spoiled and your personality degraded. Therefore, we should never make such an excuse as "A little dishonesty is only a trifle thing. We should eradicate⁶ immediately the seed of dishonesty once it is sowed in our minds.