ginger_jane (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ginger_jane) wrote2016-05-13 08:54 am
ginger_jane) wrote2016-05-13 08:54 am
Пятница, тринадцатое
On the Decay of the Art of Lying (Mark Twain)
Added on Tuesday, 14 May 13
No fact is more firmly established than that lying is a necessity of our circumstances—the deduction that it is then a Virtue goes without saying.
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None of us could live with an habitual truth-teller; but thank goodness none of us has to. An habitual truth-teller is simply an impossible creature; he does not exist; he never has existed. Of course there are people who think they never lie, but it is not so—and this ignorance is one of the very things that shame our so-called civilization.
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Everybody lies—every day; every hour; awake; asleep; in his dreams; in his joy; in his mourning; if he keeps his tongue still, his hands, his feet, his eyes, his attitude, will convey deception—and purposely. Even in sermons—but that is a platitude.
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commonest and mildest form of lying which is sufficiently described as a deflection from the truth.
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The men in that far country were liars, every one. Their mere howdy-do was a lie, because they didn't care how you did, except they were undertakers. To the ordinary inquirer you lied in return; for you made no conscientious diagnostic of your case, but answered at random, and usually missed it considerably.
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I think that all this courteous lying is a sweet and loving art, and should be cultivated. The highest perfection of politeness is only a beautiful edifice, built, from the base to the dome, of graceful and gilded forms of charitable and unselfish lying.
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Lying is universal—we all do it.*
*So the thought wasn't new.
Added on Tuesday, 14 May 13
No fact is more firmly established than that lying is a necessity of our circumstances—the deduction that it is then a Virtue goes without saying.
==========
None of us could live with an habitual truth-teller; but thank goodness none of us has to. An habitual truth-teller is simply an impossible creature; he does not exist; he never has existed. Of course there are people who think they never lie, but it is not so—and this ignorance is one of the very things that shame our so-called civilization.
==========
Everybody lies—every day; every hour; awake; asleep; in his dreams; in his joy; in his mourning; if he keeps his tongue still, his hands, his feet, his eyes, his attitude, will convey deception—and purposely. Even in sermons—but that is a platitude.
==========
commonest and mildest form of lying which is sufficiently described as a deflection from the truth.
==========
The men in that far country were liars, every one. Their mere howdy-do was a lie, because they didn't care how you did, except they were undertakers. To the ordinary inquirer you lied in return; for you made no conscientious diagnostic of your case, but answered at random, and usually missed it considerably.
==========
I think that all this courteous lying is a sweet and loving art, and should be cultivated. The highest perfection of politeness is only a beautiful edifice, built, from the base to the dome, of graceful and gilded forms of charitable and unselfish lying.
==========
Lying is universal—we all do it.*
*So the thought wasn't new.