One should feel especially flattered by an insincere compliment.
May 152023
Lying
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
Apr 262023
One often sees accuracy without truth, and sometimes truth without accuracy.
Apr 202023
Every great lie depends on narrative, the great meta-lie.
Mar 102023
In the end, lies may be no match for truth, but no one knows, and the end is far, far away.
Mar 062023
The more you hope a story is true, the likelier it is to be false.
Jan 022023
All the glamor goes to purveying the false accusation, the bogus claim, the non-existent effect; all the labor, to refuting it.
Sep 122022
As you grow old, you forget, and as you forget, you have to stop lying, or at least cut way down.
Jul 192022
The first rule of lying is never deviate from the facts.
Jul 052022
We are apt to forget, though history at intervals reminds us, how far hypocrisy is to be preferred to sincere, unaffected villainy.
Jun 082022
The hygienic metaphor — “cleansing”, “extermination”, “vermin” — always marks murderous intent.