las investigaciones indican que los mentirosos confían menos en aquellos a quienes mienten que si no les mintieran; y cuanto más dañinas son sus mentiras, menos confían en sus víctimas, e incluso menos les agradan. Parece que los mentirosos suelen despreciar a las personas a las que mienten para preservar su ego e interpretar que su conducta está justificada.

¿Cómo se puede mentir poniendo a la razón de parte de uno?

A veces la gente necesita mentirse a sí misma más que ninguna otra cosa

It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime. He takes up the trade of a priest for the sake of gain, and in order to qualify himself for that trade, he begins with a perjury. Can we conceive anything more destructive to morality than this?

Mentir es, casi por definición, negarse a cooperar con los demás. Mentir combina en un único acto la falta de confianza y de honradez. Es al mismo tiempo un fallo de comprensión y una falta de voluntad de ser comprendido. Mentir es dar un paso atrás en la relación.

And just as some people have obvious moral deficits, others must possess moral talent, moral expertise, and even moral genius. As with any human ability, these gradations must be expressed at the level of the brain.

Mentir es alzar una frontera entre la verdad en la que vivimos y la percepción que los demás tienen de nosotros.

Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe. It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.

"There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome."
"And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody."
"And yours," he replied with a smile, "is wilfully to misunderstand them."

Morality is the weakness of the mind.

"To claim that theft or adultery or lying are "evil" simply reflects our degraded idea of good- — that it has something to do with respect for property, respectability, and sincerity. "

Si alguien te hiciere saber que un inviduo habla mal de ti, no te defiendas, ni refutes lo que haya dicho, sino que responde: «Aquel que ha dicho aquello de mí, ignora sin duda otros defectos, de lo contrario no habría dicho sólo estos.»

We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid.

If you betray yourself, if you say untrue things, if you act out a lie, you weaken your character.