Lying

endless forms of suffering and embarrassment could be easily avoided by simply telling the truth.

I came away convinced that lying, even about the smallest matters, needlessly damages personal relationships and public trust.

The lies of the powerful lead us to distrust governments and corporations. The lies of the weak make us callous toward the suffering of others.

every lie haunts our future. There is no telling when or how it might collide with reality, requiring further maintenance.

By lying, we deny others a view of the world as it is. Our dishonesty not only influences the choices they make, it often determines the choices they can make—and in ways we cannot always predict. Every lie is a direct assault upon the autonomy of those we lie to.

Lying is, almost by definition, a refusal to cooperate with others. It condenses a lack of trust and trustworthiness into a single act. It is both a failure of understanding and an unwillingness to be understood. To lie is to recoil from relationship.

Lying is, almost by definition, a refusal to cooperate with others

Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies.

The ethics of war and espionage are the ethics of emergency—and are, therefore, necessarily limited in scope.

Vulnerability comes in pretending to be someone you are not.