Richard L. Evans, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (deceased) wrote:
If Everyone Must Watch Everyone. . . .
There is a simple, old-fashioned subject that is urgently essential: simple honesty. There is no credit, no contract, no situation that is safe without the element of honesty. If no one does what they say they will do, no one could count on anything. If everyone has to worry about every property, every possession—watch it, guard it, almost sit on it in a sense, in trying to hold what is theirs, the world wouldn’t run, and life would approach the impossible.
Nobody can watch everybody all the time. Nobody can watch anybody all the time. No one can stay awake all the time. No one has the time, the strength, the ability to protect himself against all forms of deception and deceit.
No one can know enough in all things always to make safe decisions. We have to trust the physician for his prescription, the pharmacist who fills it, the person who makes things, who sells things and certifies that they are of a certain kind of quality. Few of us, for example, could buy a diamond and know what it is worth. We have to trust someone.
If we can’t find a package where we put it, if goods disappear from the shelves; if a car on the street isn’t safe; if expense accounts are padded; if we can’t leave a piece of equipment with someone to repair, and know that he will do only what is needed, and charge only what is fair; if people increasingly deal in deception, there will be less and less peace and progress.
Beyond the boldness of robbery, of burglary and embezzlement, any deception is dishonest: overcharging, getting paid for what we haven’t done, taking what isn’t ours, saying what isn’t so, pretending what we aren’t, reporting what we haven’t done. In short if everyone must watch everyone, if no one can trust anyone, there is no safety, no assurance.
If it isn’t true, don’t say it. If it isn’t right, don’t do it. If it isn’t yours, don’t take it. If it belongs to someone else, return it. Honesty is not only the best policy, but a principle, and an absolute essential for the good and happy living of life.~Richard L. Evans, The Man and the Message (Salt Lake City, Bookcraft, 1973,) 98-99 (Elder
Richard L. Evans (deceased) was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
