Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote that “[a]ccuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy, of dishonesty.”  What did he mean?

Well, when we think of being accurate, we may think of math class, and getting an accurate answer.  Or we might think of weather forecasts, and whether the meteorologist predicted rain or sunshine accurately.  But there’s a bit more to it than that. 

The word accurate comes from the Latin, accuratus, meaning “done with care.”  And that makes sense.  After all, you cannot get a correct or an accurate answer in math if you don’t take care to solve it correctly.  The meteorologist cannot accurately predict the weather without first taking care to study the things that tell us whether to expect clouds, or wind, or snow.

So, if accuracy is the twin brother of honesty, it would seem that honesty requires more than just speaking the truth; it requires that we take care to make the effort to actually know the truth, before we speak. 

To be sure, we don’t really think of simple mistakes—or inaccuracies— as outright lies.  You won’t be punished for a violation of the Honor Code for a wrong answer on a math test.  But there’s also a reason we call some errors honest mistakes, and others we call careless mistakes.

Being honest means taking care to know the truth as much as being committed to telling it.

Have a wonderful day.