Honesty is a good quality to find in friends. A lot of people say a loyal and honest friend is the best kind of friend. I believe that a friend should be as honest as possible; however there are some situations when honesty is not the best policy.
First and foremost, a friend should strive to be as completely honest as possible. There are some people in the world who always tell the truth, regardless of the situation. Everybody has at least one friend like that. These are good friends because their honesty makes them reliable. If you are in any situation where you need support, turning to this kind of friend is the most comforting. You know that no matter what they say, it is the truth.
On the other hand, there are some friends that find it very hard to tell the truth. For example, I have one acquaintance that can never tell the full truth. She always says whatever she thinks the other person wants to hear. So if I ask her if she wants to make plans, so always says she is free. When it comes time for us to meet, she always remembers that she cannot come. I would not call her a true friend, because she is not reliable. There are some people that find it hard to be completely honest, but I usually do not consider them my friends.
Admittedly, there are some times in a friendship when it is not wise to tell the truth. In order to fully support a friend, we need to tell a variation of the truth. For example, one of my friends once got a really terrible haircut. She realized it looked really bad and was really self-conscious about her appearance. As her friend, it would have been cruel of me to tell her the complete truth. Instead, I told her it did not look as bad as she thought and then I helped her figure out how to style it so it did not look so bad. Even though a person might have a bad haircut, if she acts with confidence, people might not even notice her bad hair. As her friend, it was my job to make her feel confident. In this kind of circumstance, an honest friend should be sensitive to the wants and need of his or her friend.
The best kinds of friends are those who are honest. Honest friends are more reliable and trustworthy. However, sometimes complete honesty can hurt a friend, so a white lie, or a variation of the truth, is acceptable. While it is possible to always say the complete truth to a friend, sometimes it is not recommended.
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