Do you believe honesty is always best?

I know people who will rip you into bloody pieces under the guise of being "honest",  merely an excuse to let their abhorrent nature run loose.  I know honest people who will take you quietly to one side to tell you you have spinach in your teeth.  I know darling people who'll lie sweetly through their teeth to avoid letting you know the shirt you're wearing looks like dog dooky or your butt could use a little work.  Except for the spinach, all of that is opinion.  I know several slithery phrases to get myself off the slippery slope ( say that real fast 16 times!) when some unwary person asks my opinion and I feel it is not in either parties best interests to be totally honest.  I do think honest is the best policy, but I myself do not feel compelled to deliver up an honest opinion every time I'm asked.  I can do the Jello dance and wiggle and squirm around the truth if need be in order to avoid saying,  " Surely to God,  you must know your butt looks like a hot-air balloon, what possessed you to wear that skirt!?!"  I will say, " Wow, that fabric is gorgeous, let's get something to drink."  I am not the deliverer of truth and justice, the scales are not in my hands, there is no blind-cloth over my eyes.  It's not for me to say that, " you're crazy to go out with that person."    When asked if I think she paid too much for the shoes, my first thought is, " You PAID for those?!"   In my own defense, I'll simply say, " Hmm...I haven't thought about it."  Or  "I don't know."  Or  " I feel sick, I have to go to the restroom."  But,  Heaven help the poor soul who will needle me for the honest truth,   I will deliver, tender feelings or not.   For the very self-righteous person who insists for the sake of their own soul, that they must always tell the unvarnished truth, no matter how painful it is, I say,  "Go tell tell it to the Marines and take an ass-kicking for being a pain."  When I want that kind of truth I go to my Doctor or Banker and pay for it. ....and that's the truth.