Lying

by Sam Harris

Among the many paradoxes of human life, this is perhaps the most peculiar and consequential: We often behave in ways that are guaranteed to make us unhappy.

Is it wrong to lie?

most people already believe that lying is generally wrong—and they also know that some situations seem to warrant it.

“The Ethical Analyst” affected me in ways that college courses seldom do: It made me a better person.

I don't agree with this. I do think lying is apropriate in many situations. We'll see if Harris changes my mind.

Deception can take many forms, but not all acts of deception are lies.

To lie is to intentionally mislead others when they expect honest communication.

The more consequential the beliefs—that is, the more a person’s well-being demands a correct understanding of the world or of other people’s opinions—the more consequential the lie.

The intent to communicate honestly is the measure of truthfulness.

But it is in believing one thing while intending to communicate another that every lie is born.

Few of us are murderers or thieves, but we have all been liars.

At least one study suggests that 10 percent of communication between spouses is deceptive.4

Lol, not surprised.

Honesty is a gift we can give to others. It is also a source of power and an engine of simplicity. Knowing that we will attempt to tell the truth, whatever the circumstances, leaves us with little to prepare for. Knowing that we told the truth in the past leaves us with nothing to keep track of. We can simply be ourselves in every moment.

By lying, we deny our friends access to reality9—and their resulting ignorance often harms them in ways we did not anticipate.

family. You also believe that many men would be disinclined to date her at her current weight. And, marriage aside, you are confident that she would be happier and healthier, and would feel better about herself, if she got in shape. A white lie is simply a denial of these realities. It is a refusal to offer honest guidance in a storm.

In many circumstances in life, false encouragement can be very costly to another person.

Yes! I am a fervent believer in this.

To lie is to erect a boundary between the truth we are living and the perception others have of us.

In 1998, the physician Andrew Wakefield published a study in The Lancet linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism. This study has since been judged to be an “elaborate fraud,” and Wakefield’s medical license has been revoked.

Lying is, almost by definition, a refusal to cooperate with others. It condenses a lack of trust and trustworthiness into a single act. It is both a failure of understanding and an unwillingness to be understood. To lie is to recoil from relationship.

17 Lies are the social equivalent of toxic waste: Everyone is potentially harmed by their spread.

failure. District attorneys continue to prosecute people they know to be innocent because their careers depend on winning cases. Our government fights a war on drugs that creates the very problem of black-market profits and violence that it pretends to solve.

Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.

yep!