Our Honor Code starts with being “honest in all things.”  One might say that it embraces the spirit of the famous words, popularized by Benjamin Franklin, that “honesty is the best policy.”  As it turns out, however, that phrase first appeared in the writings of Sir Edwin Sandys in 1599.  Sandys was a member of the Virginia Company, responsible for founding the first American settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. 

In short, the idea that telling the truth produces the best results in the end has roots at least as old as the foundations of America itself.  Interestingly, the Virginia Company founded Jamestown, not as a settlement of religious freedom or political refuge, based on fixed principles and ideals: Its goal was simply to make money.

And therein lies the danger in thinking of honesty as “the best policy,” that is, in suggesting that being truthful is a good value.  Because, well, what if it isn’t?  What if you could lie or cheat, get away with it, and secure a benefit for yourself?  It would seem then that Mark Twain’s version would be more accurate: “Honesty is the best policy—when there is money in it.”  Or, if not money, then something else.  Which is to say that selfish gain—not honesty—would really be your policy.

Mother Teresa had a very different notion in mind, when she wrote: “If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.”

The Honor Code calls us to be honest in all things—which is to say, “Honesty is good and right—even when it is not the best policy.”