It is a great characteristic -- honesty. It covers a lot of territory. You can be trusted. A person that lies is never trustworthy. You never know a truth from a lie. In fact, lying damages not only the person for whom the untruth is told, but it damages the perpetrator as well. Both parties are damaged. But the person that lies is the more damaged.
In the tradition of the American Native tribes, "speaking with forked tongue" means lying, and a person found guilty of this was no longer considered worthy of trust. This phrase became popular in early America as well. If you spoke with straight tongue, you told the truth, forked tongue you lied.
One of the reasons a lie is so bad -- it gives people the opportunity to believe it or even question it, even after the truth replaces it.
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." Winston Churchill --
Images: Winston Churchill
Boy oh boy is that ever a true quote, especially now! I wonder how these politicians of earlier times would have liked the world of politics today?! ;D
ReplyDeleteI agree! What a true (no pun) statement. I've wondered the same thing Julie does only I think about all those first fathers and think they would be really disapointed. It was an experiment. A pretty darn good one and I'm scared to think how long it will last.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I couldn't agree more!!
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