Honesty, which includes not just avoiding falshoods but also avoiding misrepresentation and failure to do what one promises to do, is certainly a virtue. It is also the course of wisdom as it makes life simpler and does the most good -- usually. However, there is no logical or biological argument that shows honesty is always good -- it is just a rule of thumb that has unfortunately been taken too far too often.
Interestingly, it seems that almost, if not all, virtues, when taken too far, end up being vices, and honesty is not an exception. Society has exceptions to the rule calling for honesty, the most common being the (quite proper) tolerance of "white lies"-- lies told to avoid the harm the truth will cause. Sometimes it is just to avoid hurting someone's feelings, sometimes it is to avoid conflict (telling your wife -- if you are a married man -- that her new hairdo looks great, even though it doesn't, as otherwise you know you will get the silent treatment for then next few months).
I remember a time when I was in high school where the teacher insisted the definition of a white lie was one where one has no personal gain, but only wishes to avoid harming someone. I argued otherwise, and, as this teacher was stubborn, didn't do so well in his class. I argued that personal gain, or at least avoiding personal harm, is sometimes a perfectly acceptable reason to lie, such as when one knows the truth may create an enemy, and also when the person asking the question has no right to the answer.
"Are you gay?" Well, I usually have no problem with such a question, but there are times when I lie and assert my heterosexuality. The person is invading my privacy, but if I tell them that, they will conclude I must be gay, since otherwise I would not be reluctant to answer. When a poll taker calls me on the phone with one of those surveys, and it soon becomes apparent that the "poll" is not a poll at all but a sales attempt or a politically partisan effort to push a particular position or candidate, then I begin to lie through my teeth, partly to waste their time and partly to confuse the data. Such things are dishonest going in and therefore have no right to the truth.
It is possible to imagine scenarios where truth is in fact a grave moral and ethical wrong, such as, say, having Ann Frank hiding in your attic and the Gestapo at the door asking if you have seen her.
Breaking of promises is another type of dishonest behavior, and can be classed as a species of lie. The story is, Thomas Jefferson promised his wife, as she was dying, that he would never remarry. So he didn't, but instead ended up committing the much worse offense of having children by a slave woman. Now he treated her well and gave her and her children their freedom in his will, but I have to say that having sex with a slave is a form of rape and far worse than breaking a promise made to ease the passing of someone who really has no right to extract such a promise.
Carrying honesty too far, when the truth is harmful, then, is a vice, and using the dictum to always tell the truth as an excuse for imposing such harm is a double-vice.
This illustrates the problem with codes of ethical conduct -- there can be no solid rules beyond avoiding harm, maximizing good, and not using others, and these objectives themselves are not absolutes but must be weighed against each other in each particular situation.
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