"Simple, direct and honest speech"
Truth is the cornerstone of trust and meaningful relationships. Quakers have always refused to swear oaths, because it implies that there are only certain occasions in which the truth matters. Early Quakers were known for their honesty and straight dealing. This is partly why Quakers were successful in business and banking in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Quakers aim to use simple, direct and honest speech. When we all use this 'plain speaking' we all know where we stand with each other. There should be no deception, no hidden agendas or important things left unsaid.
The Quaker quest for truth has an important role to play in wider society and political life. Quakers speak 'truth to power'. This means that when we feel that something important needs to be said, we must make the effort to say it to the people who need to hear it and have the power to effect change.
"waiting in love and truth"
Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of love and truth in your hearts. Trust them as the leadings of God whose Light shows us our darkness and brings us to new life.
Prayer is experienced as deeper than words or busy thoughts. ‘Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts’, said Fox. It is marked by a kind of relaxed readiness, a ‘letting-go’ of the problems and perplexities with which the mind is occupied, and a waiting in ‘love and truth’: the truth about oneself, the truth about the world, deeper than the half-truths we see when we are busy in it about our own planning and scheming, the love in which we are held when we think of others more deeply than our ordinary relations with them, the love that at root holds us to the world.