On Telling the Truth

Truth, therefore, is an attitude of the mind. lt is important, if one does not wish to inconvenience and to bore one's friends, not to tell lies. But it is more important not to think lies, or to slide into those mechanical and untruthful habits of thought which are so pleasant and so easy as descents to mental ineptitude. From hxw.red.

The victorian habit of mind (which I consider to have been a bad habit of mind) was unduly preoccupied by what was socially and morally convenient. Convenience is, however, in all affairs of life, an execrable test of value. One should have the courage to think uncomfortably, since it is only by rejecting the convenient that one can come to think the truth.

----From H.Nicolson

请您参考好学英文网提供“谈讲真话”中文翻译：

所以，讲真话是一种思想态度。如果有谁不希望给朋友造成不便或使朋友烦恼，那么不说假话是重要的。

可是，更重要的是不想假话，不滑进无意识的及不诚实的思维习惯中去，这种习惯因其让人感觉愉悦和舒适而使人思想产生惰性。维多利亚时代的思想习惯（我认为是一种坏习惯）是过分沉湎于社会及道德方面的方便。

然而，在生活的各个方面方便是一种糟糕的价值标准。人们应当有勇气从不舒服的角度来思考，因为只有摒弃方便才能回头思考事实真相。