Honestly?

A. "Honesty is the best policy." -- Benjamin Franklin

B. "A half truth is a whole lie" -- Yiddish Proverb

C. "People who are brutally honest get more satisfaction out of the brutality than out of the honesty." -- Richard J. Needham

D. "Society can only exist on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks." Lin Yutang

Pick the statement with which you agree the most. Can they all be true??

I was always told to be honest. All the time, in all situations. And when that could not be the case, I was told simply to never ever lie to the people I love, because they above all else, deserve respect. We shouldn't be afraid to hurt the feelings of the people that matter the most, for those people deserve to have us as we really are. If truth is a virtue, then these are the virtues upon which I was raised. You are polite, courteous, and decidedly fake amongst strangers and people who have power and control over us. You are real and true and rough and gritty with everyone else. To that, I have recently added that above all else, you must be real and true and rough and gritty with yourself.

Even more recently, I have been told that I am decidedly wrong. That I should be polite to everyone, even the people I care most about. That if I care about them then I should care enough not to say anything that might hurt them. Which to half of me, makes sense. But to the other half, I feel like if I can't be my self, honestly really and truly myself, with my closest friends, then when can I ever really be me?

My friends say that hurting people doesn't define me. I never said it did, but I feel like my feelings define me, and if I can't express myself freely, isn't that lying to myself? That breaks a cardinal rule.

I'm not a Christian, but doesn't somewhere in that Book of theirs, it say "To thine own self be true"? My goal for this year and the rest of my life is to love myself above all else. If I censor myself so that my friends love me too, isn't that like cheating myself out of something? Is it worth it to be loved?