“There’s one thing you may be sure of, Pip,” said Joe, after some rumination, “namely, that lies is lies. Howsever they come, they didn’t ought to come, and they come from the father of lies, and work round to the same. Don’t you tell no more of ’em, Pip. That ain’t the way to get out of being common, old chap.”
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 9. After Pip admits to making up stories about what went on at Miss Havisham’s, the upright and honest Joe rebukes him. Pip lied about his visit there with sensational stories because Estella had told him he was common. But Joe, a highly principled man of integrity, warns Pip that lying is not the way to elevate your social status. In a world where many people follow the path of social pretensions and dishonesty, Joe offers Pip a moral compass to guide his life by. A father figure to Pip, he is anxious that Pip lives by a code of honesty and integrity.