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Honesty:

The virtue of seeking the truth.

This virtue upholds the importance of what's real. When you act to gain values, you need to act on what's true. Lies will only distort your view of reality, it won't make it real.

The virtue warns against the costs of lying. One cost is that you might get caught, jeopardizing your relationships and trust with others. To avoid getting caught in your lies, you'd have to perform actions that have other costs. For instance, you might fear intelligent or insightful people, and try to avoid them. You might spend a lot of mental energy trying to keep your lies clear so that you can maintain them. Or worse, you might start to believe them. And as is well known, you may have to lie more to try to cover previous lies, creating a web of deceit.

The virtue doesn't just aim at avoiding lying. It upholds the value of seeking the truth and keeping focused on what's real. By being in the habit of looking at what's real, you keep a focus on reality instead of trying to think about what other people think. The virtue promotes acting in a way that you don't need or want to be dishonest.