The pillar of skillful speech is to speak honestly, which means that we
should even avoid telling little white lies. We need to be aware of
dishonesty in the forms of exaggerating, minimizing, and self-aggrandizing.
These forms of unskillful speech often arise from a fear that what we are is
not good enough––and that is never true. Honesty begins at home, so the
practice of skillful speech begins with being honest with ourselves.
– Allan Lokos, “Skillful Speech” (Winter 2008)