"I'm of the opinion that they are. Any person who claims to be one hundred percent honest is undoubtedly lying."

It's not cynicism, exactly, but it has been his experience. He's never met someone who claimed to have no secrets that wasn't attempting to be manipulative, or attempting to cover up something enormous. His own tactic, he thinks, works well enough: he gives people enough information that they feel he's polite and genuine, if slightly reserved, but never gives anyone anything that they could use against him. Except for Ned, of course. Ned knows things he shouldn't. In another place, in another time, he'd consider Ned a threat. Here, he's beginning to consider him a friend.