On the Decay of the Art of Lying

by Mark Twain

No high-minded man, no man of right feeling, can contemplate the lumbering and slovenly lying of the present day without grieving to see a noble art so prostituted.

No fact is more firmly established than that lying is a necessity of our circumstances—the deduction that it is then a Virtue goes without saying.

What chance has the ignorant uncultivated liar against the educated expert? What chance have I against Mr. Per—against a lawyer? Judicious lying is what the world needs. I sometimes think it were even better and safer not to lie at all than to lie injudiciously. An awkward, unscientific lie is often as ineffectual as the truth.

Children and fools always speak the truth. The deduction is plain —adults and wise persons never speak it.

Parkman, the historian, says, "The principle of truth may itself be carri...

"The saying is old that truth should not be spoken at all times; and those whom a sick conscience worries into habitual violation of t...

None of us could live with an habitual truth-teller; but thank goodness none of us has to. An habitual truth-teller is simply an impossible creature; he does not exist; he never has existed. Of course there are people who think they never lie, but it is not so—and this ignorance is one of the very things that shame our so-called civilization. Everybody lies—every day; every hour; awake; asleep; in his dreams; in his joy; in his mournin...