Honesty and friendship: Can you be honest and still have a lot of friends?
I encountered a quote several years ago and it goes like this,“Being honest may not get you a lot of friends but it'll always get you the right ones.”
When it comes to friendship, I believe that honesty is important. Imagine being friends with someone who cannot take criticisms or feedbacks.Imagine being friends with someone who always keep secrets. Of course, it is not mandatory to know every single detail about your friends life, people also need privacy.
I had some friends who cannot be honest about anything in their life, whether it is their job, their love life or even their feelings. I was wondering how we were able to climb several mountains together and spend days in the wilderness. Usually, people open up more easily. There are friends who are also too honest and at times you appreciate them but certain times you also hate them for telling the truth. It is sometimes a reality that people do not like to hear the truth. When a friend asked me what I think about his boyfriend, I sometimes give the generic answer because I knew that my answer, the real answer will hurt her feelings. Honesty, at least too much can hurt people and so the quote became famous and it is absolutely true. I prefer to have a few friends who can take the truth than a lot of friends with fake answers.
I think this also depends on the culture and the environment. In Southeast Asia, people prefer an indirect sugar coated answer than the real deal or better yet, it is better not to not say anything.
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