Very interesting thread -- but I find "being Honest" without real-life examples as too general and vague, I have trouble "getting" what the question is. Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living, but there have been a lot of times when it seemed to me that the OVER examined life was impossible to live--who has time? What with 12-step groups, personal therapy, consciousness-raising groups, etc. etc., examining and examining and re-examining, going over it all with ever-finer combs. At some point it's time to quit and just do the best you can, and apologize when/as necessary, and from time to time make amends, also when/as necessary.

Virtue really is its own reward. Being honest, being diligent, being a person of good will, being kind, being what you say you are -- Allan Sherman notwithstanding, these paths are simpler and make life easier, and can lead to happiness, IMHO. I don't think that any kind of dishonesty ever makes anyone really happy; at least I can't imagine a situation where real dishonesty would make me happy for more than five minutes. (By "real dishonesty"--sounds oxymoronic--I mean lying out of self-interest, not out of concern for the other's happiness or well-being; if someone looks crappy, tired, overworked, but really can't do anything about it, then I don't count it as dishonest to say she looks fine.)

I spent a very long time lying about aspects of my life, in large part because I couldn't stand watching somebody go into a rage, which the "truth" was going to elicit. I hate the emotional violence of anger, and when I've been dishonest it has usually been to avoid it. But it's better to go through the unpleasantness of a temper tantrum than to be held hostage by the threat of same.