Dishonesty is deviation from the truth

Dishonesty is not limited to saying things that we know to be untrue. The pernicious effects of dishonesty appear to some degree in all its forms, making it vital to understand its breadth.

The true definition of dishonesty is much broader than what most people consider it to be, and it is only by this expansion that the sheer quantity of lies is manifest, whether they be the ones we create ourselves or those we endure from others.

In order to elucidate the diversity of ways in which people lie, we must first define what it means to be dishonest. Dishonesty is intentional deviation from the truth. The truth is things as they really were, are, and will be, and any intentional deviation from this is a lie:

24 And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;
25 And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning. (D&C 93)

Willful deviation from reality requires knowledge. It is your sincere but subjective perception of reality that creates the basis against which lies are created, not objective reality itself.¹ The distinction between dishonesty and ignorance is an important one to make, as many dishonest people seek to excuse themselves in the same way as those who truly didn’t know any better. But this kind of self-justification and self-rationalizing is wrong. Dishonesty is always willful: you really are responsible for what you understand to be true.

The laws of cause and effect describe the requirements to obtain each and every possible outcome in and after life.² While no one knows all truth, everyone has some estimate of the truth, which is their belief of how things were, are, and will be. Your beliefs are the collection of your estimates of what these laws may be, as far as you are aware. Dishonesty includes the degree to which you are at odds with your beliefs and the degree to which your beliefs are at odds with your observation of reality. It is dishonest to deviate from your understanding of reality in anything you think, feel, or do.

Dishonesty is caused by preferring something other than the truth over the truth. Devaluation of the truth precedes every act of dishonesty —otherwise known as lies. The love of truth is the cure to dishonesty. To be honest is to set the truth as the highest priority. If you value truth above all other things, you can’t lie. For the honest, no cost is too high a price to pay to find, live, and speak the truth.