In the end, lies may be no match for truth, but no one knows, and the end is far, far away.
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
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.
The first rule of lying is never deviate from the facts.
We are apt to forget, though history at intervals reminds us, how far hypocrisy is to be preferred to sincere, unaffected villainy.
The hygienic metaphor — “cleansing”, “extermination”, “vermin” — always marks murderous intent.
“Who would do something that stupid?” This is the Inanity Defense, and it should never be believed.
The apology is usually imaginary, but then so is the offense.
Explanations always sound like justifications because that is what they are.