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What do you call a person who always speaks the truth, never does anything wrong, and treats everyone fairly?

I am looking for a word or name of a popular person who was famous for having similar characteristics.

I cannot think of any example, but I can use the word "Hitler" to associate a person with authoritarian or tyrannical characteristics.

PS: Is there any ironic word for it?

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  • 8
    “Never does anything wrong”? Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
    – tchrist
    Mar 7, 2013 at 11:56
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    Very very boring
    – Fortiter
    Mar 7, 2013 at 12:47
  • 11
    Imaginary, non-existent, made-up. Mar 7, 2013 at 12:51
  • 1
    How about "a baby" Mar 7, 2013 at 19:52
  • 3
    Obviously you call them a "bad liar". Mar 8, 2013 at 0:57

12 Answers 12

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A "goody two-shoes" is one possibility. A "saint" is another. A regular [This word makes the appellation ironic] "Mother Teresa". A "fraud" or a "one-dimensional fictional character" [There's nobody who's "never done anything wrong in their life"].

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  • 12
    +1 for Mother Teresa which, I believe, is the kind of answer the OP is looking for. That said, Christopher Hitchens would have disagreed with the choice. Mar 7, 2013 at 12:47
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    I like Saint and Mother Teresa ... thx
    – TigerTiger
    Mar 7, 2013 at 13:21
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    "Right", "real" and "proper" are other ways of making something like this ironic ("A right shining star of virtue", "a real angel sent from heaven", "a proper saint walking among us"). That said, these might just be in british english, where essentially all strong praise is assumed to be ironic :) Mar 7, 2013 at 16:18
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A saint could mean an extremely virtuous person and is one who could exhibit the virtues you have listed and more.

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  • yes, I like saint ... but I chose Mother Teresa here ... thx
    – TigerTiger
    Mar 7, 2013 at 13:21
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Either paragon or Sir Galahad (from Arthurian legends).

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    +1. Paragon of virtue was th answer I was going to offer.
    – TRiG
    Mar 7, 2013 at 19:32
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I would suggest using righteous, upright.


References:


Holy Bible (NIV), Job 1:1

In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

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A Jewish word for somebody who has never sinned and is righteous is tzadik:

Tzadik/Zadik/Sadiq [tsaˈdik] (Hebrew: צדיק‎ "righteous one", pl. Tzadikim [tsadiˈkim] צדיקים ṣadiqim) is a title given to personalities in Jewish tradition considered righteous, such as Biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The root of the word ṣadiq, is ṣ-d-q (צדק Tzedek), which means "justice" or "righteousness", also the root of Tzedakah (Charity, lit. "righteousness"). The feminine term for a righteous person is Tzadeikas.

Webster has entries for tzaddik and zaddik which read:

1: a righteous and saintly person by Jewish religious standards
2: the spiritual leader of a modern Hasidic community

ODO's entry only lists the latter of the two senses above.

While not exactly irony, WP also notes:

The title of Voltaire's satirical novel Zadig also stems from this root.

Another eponymous word is seraph (with an adjective, seraphic):

an angelic being, regarded in traditional Christian angelology as belonging to the highest order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy, associated with light, ardour, and purity.

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It is worth pointing out that in the Christian tradition (which is the cultural background if not the actual belief system of most English speakers), a morally perfect human being is generally considered an impossibility.

For this reason, there really isn't a word for a morally perfect human being, just a lot of words for folks who are better (or more often, just think they are better) than most others.

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  • Amen, er i mean spot on.
    – Alaska Man
    Mar 17, 2017 at 16:10
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I would say the word would be perfect. Righteous and virtuous are about virtues and moral rectitude. A person who does everything right is perfect. I understand you are looking for something that sounds a little more sophisticated. If you can tell us the sentence where you intend to use it, I could try to come up with something.

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A common way to say this sort of thing ironically:

Directly / to the person:

"Oh righteous one"

"Oh virtuous one" etc

As in, "But you've never done anything wrong, have you, oh virtuous one?".

It's deliberately talking in a venerating way that no-one has used non-ironically outside of religion or diplomacy since the middle ages.


When talking ironically about someone, you might use an ironic prefix of the type that would in less cynical times have been reserved for a celebrated or honoured religious or public figure:

"But of course, that's not how the venerable John describes what happened"

or "...honourable..."

or "...worshipful..."

or "...most reverend..."

or "...most holy..."

or "...most virtuous..."

or "...the great and noble..."


In general, using language with a flavour of religion or historical anachronism works well for this sort of heavy irony.

"But of course, that's not how the he-who-is-without-sin describes what happened"

"But of course, that's not how John The Benevolent describes what happened"

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  • "But you've never done anything wrong, have you, oh virtuous one?" Thats saying it sarcastically, not ironically
    – user38984
    Mar 7, 2013 at 17:20
  • Irony and sarcasm are often used interchangeably in the above case. (cf. the phrase "Without a hint of irony")
    – Joe Z.
    Mar 7, 2013 at 19:42
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From the ODO:

Christlike

adjective

Example:

"He was very noble in his bearing, almost Christlike, but with an accessible persona that brought to mind the universal acceptance of George Washington as the father of our country."

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What do you call a person who always speaks the truth, never does anything wrong, and treats everyone fairly?

I am looking for a word or name of a popular person who was famous for having similar characteristics.

Good luck with that! Can you think of any historical person who "never does anything wrong"?

Still, "treats everyone fairly" (and/or has wise judgement) might be "a Solomon".

Without ascribing a proper name, "never does anything wrong" might be "innocent" (adjective) or "an innocent" (noun).

You might also call them (if they're a man) "a prince" (because a fairy-tale prince should be assumed to have good and chivalrous manners).

The person I vaguely imagine as being the most saintly is Saint Francis; but (if, or perhaps because, he was among the more perfect or least sinful people) no-one I know is compared with him: i.e. a phrase like "he's a regular Saint Francis" is not common usage.

I ought to be able to think of a famously truthful person. George Washington ("I cannot tell a lie") was a fabulous if not a famous example.

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Flawless

Flawless, or faultless.

  1. having no defects or faults, especially none that diminish the value of something:

  2. having no discernible blemishes or shortcomings; perfect:

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I see there aren't many Catholics, relapsed or non, using EL&U.

The only human, biological person recorded in history who was born without sin, whose soul was said to be immaculate, was Jesus Christ's mum, better known as the Virgin Mary.

The Immaculate Conception, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, is the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary free from original sin by virtue of the foreseen merits of her son Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church teaches that Mary was conceived by normal biological means in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne, but God acted upon her soul, keeping it "immaculate".
Wikipedia

An example (sarcastic):

Oh, you think you're so perfect. Who are you, the Virgin Mary?

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  • Using the catholic church as a reputable source for factual knowledge and truth is dubious at best.
    – Alaska Man
    Mar 17, 2017 at 16:20
  • @Alaskaman have you never heard of Saint Mary? She's pretty much well-known, and revered by millions and millions of Christians. And even atheists know who she is supposed to be. I mean, if I were to say that there is a story about someone called Santa Claus who gives presents to good children, would you say that was dubious? And the OP also asked for an ironic word. Well, a mother who was a virgin was pretty ironic, but nowadays with artificial insemination, it's no longer an impossible feat.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Mar 21, 2017 at 0:18

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