Mark Twain jotted down this practical yet profound thought in one of his many published notebook entries, succinctly summing up the refreshing simplicity that comes with honesty. When we stick to telling the truth, we avoid the tricky necessity of remembering all the fictitious details of a fabricated story and all the inconsistencies that may arise while trying to maintain a lie. Being honest circumvents the mental burden associated with lying, including feelings of guilt. For Twain, this made telling the truth a far more pleasant and sensible option. As he wrote in “Following the Equator,” a travelogue published in 1897, “When in doubt, tell the truth.”