In any reference to “X-figures”, the first figure is 1.*
*If it is “mid X-figures”, the first figure is 2. If it is “high X-figures”, the first figure is 5.
To a quite unwreckable Lie,
To a most impeccable Lie!
To a water-tight, fire-proof, angle-iron, sunk-hinge, time-lock, steel-faced Lie!
Not a private hansom Lie,
But a pair-and-brougham Lie,
Not a little-place-at-Tooting, but a country-house-with-shooting
And a ring-fence-deer-park Lie.
—-Kipling
In any reference to “X-figures”, the first figure is 1.*
*If it is “mid X-figures”, the first figure is 2. If it is “high X-figures”, the first figure is 5.
There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are documentaries.
To destigmatize what is perverse it is necessary to stigmatize not merely what is normal, but the very idea of normality itself.
One should feel especially flattered by an insincere compliment.
One often sees accuracy without truth, and sometimes truth without accuracy.
Every great lie depends on narrative, the great meta-lie.
In the end, lies may be no match for truth, but no one knows, and the end is far, far away.
The more you hope a story is true, the likelier it is to be false.
All the glamor goes to purveying the false accusation, the bogus claim, the non-existent effect; all the labor, to refuting it.
As you grow old, you forget, and as you forget, you have to stop lying, or at least cut way down.