The Little Liar

by Mitch Albom

“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.

Fannie visited a memorial for the Jewish victims of the “Holocaust,” a now-common term for what had happened under the Nazis. It came from the Greek word holocauston, which means a burned sacrifice.