Business has its credit system. So has life. If we stopped to verify the word of every one with whom we were obliged to deal in the course of the day, human affairs would be paralyzed. The only way the world can go on is on the assumption that people around us are telling the truth. And it is because of the hideous inconvenience and uncertainty he occasions that the whole world detests a liar.

The man best able to tell the truth is he most willing to face the truth--especially disagreeable truths about himself or the community he lives in. How can we correct errors if we will not even acknowledge them, or how can we acknowledge them if we will not even look at them?

Truth-facing, like charity, begins at home. The man who is able to face the disagreeable truth about himself has learned to face the truth about the community he lives in and earned the right to speak of it. And a community honest enough, courageous enough, and intelligent enough to face the disagreeable truth about itself is a community hard to beat in war or in peace. --Boston Globe.