The Little Liar

by Mitch Albom

I have witnessed this countless times throughout history, men pumped with the adrenaline of war. It rarely ends well.

But there is always a purpose to cruelty. The Germans wanted to change me. They wanted the Jews of Salonika to accept a new version of Truth, one in which there was no freedom, no faith, and no hope. Only Nazi rule.

“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.”

If there were an honest word for such disregard of other human beings, I would share it. There is not.

Sebastian shivered. He thought about those words, and the many times he’d wished his father would say them to him. Now, however, words were no longer critical. Food was. Water was. Avoiding the guards’ gaze was. It is a sad fact I have noticed with humans. By the time you share what a loved one longs to hear, they often no longer need it. *

Having already learned parts of eight different languages, Nico had a system. Learn certain key verbs (do, want, see, make, go, come, eat, sleep), certain key nouns (food, water, room, friend, family, country), memorize all the pronouns, then begin to fill in the rest.

This should not surprise you. When it comes to lies, governments can outlast anyone.