A statement that successfully picks its way across this dangerous terrain is said to exhibit an economy of truth , and a person who has uttered such a statement is said to have been economical with the truth . These characterizations, too, were originally conferred with a sense of professional appreciation (I first heard them on the lips of some Jesuit friends), but they have also been pulled out of truth's orbit and into the atmosphere of mendacity.
Someone who is economical with the truth cannot be honest.