Lying by Sam Harris: Best book quotes
“It’s in believing one thing while intending to communicate another that every lie is born”
In his 39-page book, Sam Harris explains why lying even in small matters damages personal relationships and public trust. Below are some of the best quotes I came across as I read the book.
· Knowing that we will attempt to tell the truth, whatever the circumstances, leaves us with little to prepare for. We can simply be ourselves.
· Endless forms of suffering and embarrassment could be easily avoided by simply telling the truth
I don’t always communicate the truth in the way that I want to — but one of the strengths of telling the truth is that it remains open for elaboration
· Sincerity, authenticity, integrity, mutual understanding — these and other sources of moral wealth are destroyed the moment we deliberately misrepresent our beliefs, whether or not our lies are ever discovered.
· And while we imagine that we tell certain lies out of compassion for others, it is rarely difficult to spot the damage we do in the process
· But if we are convinced that a friend has taken a wrong turn in life, it is no sign of friendship to simply smile and wave him onward.
· When we presume to lie for the benefit of others, we have decided that we are the best judges of how much they should understand about their own lives — about how they appear, their reputations, or their prospects in the world
· Failures of personal integrity, once revealed, are rarely forgotten
· But when asked for our opinion, we do our friends no favors by pretending not to notice flaws in their work, especially when those who are not their friends are bound to notice these same flaws
· And if we have a history of being honest, our praise and encouragement will actually mean something.
· To agree to keep a secret is to assume a burden. At a minimum, one must remember what one is not supposed to talk about
Nevertheless, I continue to find that a willingness to be honest — especially about truths that one might be expected to conceal — often leads to much more gratifying exchanges with other human beings
· One of the greatest problems for the liar is that he must keep track of his lies.
· Lies beget other lies
· When you tell the truth, you have nothing to keep track of. The world itself becomes your memory, and if questions arise, you can always point others back to it
· Tell enough lies, however, and the effort required to keep your audience in the dark quickly becomes unsustainable
· What does it mean to have integrity? It means many things, of course, but one criterion is to avoid behavior that readily leads to shame or remorse.
· Vulnerability comes in pretending to be someone you are not
· As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies.
· Acts of adultery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption — even murder and genocide — generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie
· Every lie haunts our future. There is no telling when or how it might collide with reality, requiring further maintenance. The truth never needs to be tended in this way. It can simply be reiterated.
Question to ask yourself; How would your relationships change if you resolved never to lie again?
