The Little Liar

by Mitch Albom

“People say many things. Some are true. Some are lies. Sometimes, if you say a lie long enough, people believe it’s the truth.

In a world full of lies, honesty glimmers like silver foil reflecting the sun.

But just as ignoring proper food will ultimately decay your body, so will handpicking the Truth eventually rot your soul.

“When you do something for someone that can never be repaid. Like cleaning the graves of the dead. That is a true and loving kindness.”

He lowers his voice. “It’s easy to be nice when you get something in return. It’s harder when nobody knows the good you are doing except yourself.”

Of all the lies you tell yourself, perhaps the most common is that, if you only do this or that, you will be accepted. It affects your behavior with classmates, neighbors, colleagues, lovers. Humans do a great deal to be liked. They are needier than I can comprehend.

It was a time in human history where the world was cleaved in two, those doing nothing about the horror and those trying to stop it. A world of light and dark.

But just because you forget about a lie does not mean it forgets about you.

When the Wolf stirred his followers in the 1930s, it worked not because Germans were inclined to hate Jews, but because all humans are inclined to hate others if they believe they are the cause of their unhappiness. The trick is to convince them.

Hate is an ancient melody. Blame is even older.

Sometimes a lie is merely truth that is yet to happen.

but a lie told a thousand times can look like the truth.