About this quote

Put truth first and everything else has to arrange itself around it. Framed this way, the highest thing isn't tied to any single creed — a skeptic and a believer can both bow to what is actually so, making honesty the one loyalty no worldview gets to bend.

When to use it

• Reporting the real numbers to your boss even when a rosier version would go over easier.
• A researcher publishing results that undercut the hypothesis she hoped to prove.
• Owning up to a mistake that no one would ever have traced back to you.