Honesty & Integrity Quote by Bernard Williams

A half-truth sounds like a compromise, the polite middle ground between honesty and lying. Bern Williams’ line punctures that comforting fiction. The bite is in the math: “usually less than half.” It’s not just that a half-truth withholds information; it actively warps what remains. By shaving off context, motive, timing, or scale, you don’t preserve 50 percent of reality - you distort the other 50 percent until it can’t reliably point to the whole.

The phrasing is deceptively casual. “Usually” is a sly hedge that makes the claim feel observational rather than moralizing, like a seasoned listener reporting a pattern. And “less than half of that” adds a second cut, a little rhetorical recursion that mirrors how half-truths operate: once you accept one omission, you’re primed to accept another. The sentence itself becomes a demonstration of compounding loss.

Subtextually, it’s an indictment of strategic communication - the kind that thrives in politics, PR, and even personal relationships. Half-truths aren’t primarily about concealment; they’re about control. They invite you to draw the “wrong” conclusion using the “right” facts. That’s why they can feel more insulting than outright lies: a lie confronts you, but a half-truth recruits you.

The likely context is any environment where accountability exists but transparency is optional: “I told you” as a defense, technical accuracy as camouflage. Williams is warning that truth isn’t a portion you can safely ration; it’s a structure. Remove key supports and the whole thing collapses, leaving you with less than you thought you had.