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

By lying, we deny our friends access to reality9 — and their resulting ignorance often harms them in ways we did not anticipate. Our friends may act on our falsehoods, or fail to solve problems that could have been solved only on the basis of good information. Rather often, to lie is to infringe on the freedom of those we care about.

The liar wants to be believed, but lying undermines the foundation for credibility.

If you betray yourself, if you say untrue things, if you act out a lie, you weaken your character.

I do myself a greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I tell a lie.

to lie is to infringe upon the freedom of those we care about.

came away convinced that lying, even about the smallest matters, needlessly

To lie is to intentionally mislead others when they expect honest communication.

To lie is to intentionally mislead others when they expect honest communication.2 This leaves stage magicians, poker players, and other harmless dissemblers off the hook, while illuminating a psychological and social landscape whose general shape is very easy to recognize. People lie so that others will form beliefs that are not true. The more consequential the beliefs — that is, the more a person’s well-being demands a correct understanding of the world or of other people’s opinions — the more consequential the lie.

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 so ill a quality, and the mother of so many ill ones that spawn from it, and take shelter under it, that a child should be brought up in the greatest abhorrence of it imaginable. It should be always spoke of before him with the utmost detestation, as a quality so wholly inconsistent with the name and character of a gentleman, that no body of any credit can bear the imputation of a lie; a mark that is judg'd in utmost disgrace, which debases a man to the lowest degree of a shameful meanness, and ranks him with the most contemptible part of mankind and the abhorred rascality; and is not to be endured in any one who would converse with people of condition, or have any esteem or reputation in the world.

Lying is about controlling someone else’s reality, hoping that what they don’t know won’t hurt you.

Sincerity, authenticity, integrity, mutual understanding — these and other sources of moral wealth are destroyed the moment we deliberately misrepresent our beliefs, whether or not our lies are ever discovered.

Nothing could be a more serious violation of public trust than to consciously make a war based on false claims.