What is most important to you in a friend--loyalty, generosity, honesty--why? 2-19-11

I believe honesty is the most important trait in a friend, or even a person for that matter.  I can live without money or gifts but what I can't live without is honesty, to really be able to trust somebody is a very important thing in someone's life and without honesty there is really no way for you to have a happy life.  You can forgive people for being late, or for forgetting, but if the reason they couldn't make it was made up then that really damages a relationship with someone.  When it comes to lying it is an almost impossible web to get out of.  With every lie someone tells it is just another thing they have to remember, but when the truth, even though it may hurt, is a much simpler thing to remember, it just makes more sense to tell the truth.  I recently made a friend that I thought was being honest with me, in fact in the very beginning they said that honesty is the most important thing to them in a relationship.  But after a while several plans had been made and had to be canceled, they said it was due to issues at home or because something happened that wouldn't allow them to make it, or that they were sick.  But several days later I found out that they had just been blowing me off to hang out with other friends, now what hurt the most was that they had to lie to me about everything to make themselves feel better, I would have been more understanding about them wanting to hang out with someone else instead of me, but when it comes to being honest, it truely is something that everyone needs to have.