Truthful Speech
Speaking truth with kindness, avoiding harmful speech even when truthful.
Sikh ethics require speaking truth, but truth should be delivered with compassion. Speech that harms unnecessarily, even if technically true, violates the principle of loving communication.
Sweet speech and humble words are the essence of all virtues.
Truth and compassion must work together in speech.
Guru Granth Sahib
Written about in
- What Sikhism says about doing no harm
Truth is required, and so is the manner of it. Speech that wounds more than it needs to is a fault even when it is accurate.
- What Sikhism says about truth and lying
Truthful Speech adds the constraint that truth be delivered with compassion, and says outright that speech which harms unnecessarily violates the principle even when it is accurate. Being right is not a defence.