The Little Liar

by Mitch Albom

But here is the funny thing about truth: the less real something seems, the more people want to believe it.

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

He creates words to blanket his evil. This is an old trick. If you want to get away with lying, first change the language.

“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.”

So he did not say a word. And with that silence, he changed his brother’s life forever. Sometimes, it is the truths we don’t speak that echo the loudest.

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.

The truth is (there I go, referencing myself) people ultimately see through efforts to impress them. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but they do.

Remember that children are still children. Even under the most dire circumstances, they will create moments to be exactly their age.

man, to be forgiven, will do anything,”

When the Lord was handing out qualities, Trust was freely distributed. Humans and animals each got a share. But betrayal? That went to mankind alone.

But in desperate moments people hear what they want to hear, despite what they might see right in front of them.

Truth is a straight line, but human life is a flexible experience. You exit the womb curling into a new world, and from that moment forward, you bend and adjust.

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.

Some lies are easier to believe than the truth.’”

Some lies are easier to believe than the truth. Nico’s truth, that he was a Jewish boy from Greece who had been tutored by a Nazi Haupsturmtführer, had deceived his own people on a train platform, was taught the art of forgery by Romani, and now was traveling to a death camp from which he had been spared, was far less believable than his cover stories.

But questioning a madman is like interrogating a spider. They both go on spinning their webs until someone squashes them out of existence.

I am the harshest of virtues.

Truth is universal. You often hear that expression. Nonsense. Were I truly universal, there would be no disagreement over right and wrong, who deserves what, or what happiness means.

But there are certain truths that are experienced universally, and one of them is loss. The hollow in your heart as you stand by a grave. The lump in your throat as you stare at your destroyed home. Loss. Yes. Loss is universal. Everyone in their lifetime will know it.

Why, if people so loudly value the Truth, are they so fascinated by liars?

A good liar knows what people want to hear; why

But the lies you tell by daylight leave you lonesome in the dark.

Let me speak here of love. You might ask, what does Truth know about that subject? But which word do humans choose to describe love’s purest form? “True.” So hear me out. You have debated for centuries about what true love means. Some say it is when another’s happiness means more to you than your own. Others say it is when you cannot imagine the world without your partner. For me, true love is easy. It’s the kind where you do not lie to yourself.

all humans are inclined to hate others if they believe they are the cause of their unhappiness. The trick is to convince them. It

Hate is an ancient melody. Blame is even older.

There are four directions in this world. And four seasons. There are four basic mathematical functions, and four subsystems of the planet. The Bible speaks of four rivers of paradise. Four winds of heaven. There are four suits in a deck of cards. Four wheels on a car. Four legs on a table. Four is an underpinning. Four is a balance. Four is a complete circle of the bases, until you end where you began, at home.

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

Humans are broken. Susceptible to sin. They were created with minds to explore, but they often choose to explore their own power. They lie. And those lies let them think they are God. Truth is the only thing that stops them. And

a lie told once is easy to expose, but a lie told a thousand times can look like the truth. And destroy the world.

It takes enormous courage to relive the worst things that have happened to you.