what do you think?

This reminds me of something of a(n inherent) identity crisis I once found myself (and still do) struggling with. I used to be something of a student of Love--striving spiritually and intellectually to comprehend the behavioural and emotive, as well as spiritual ideals of Love, but then I became more attracted to truth, and its bending and outright denying being a major cause of psychological disorders... I realized, that often "out of Love" we will lie to others--yet, philosophy and ideologies of the oldest kind would tell us never to lie--that in doing so we betray (the) God(s), ourself, and everyone else... The problem, is not so much that we lie to others, it is that we lie to ourselves, and wish/hope/expect others to lie to us--this is how we perpetuate the human comedy that is society as we know it. DR...

That quote is so true. I never thought about it that way before. I normally do not lie, I don't like to be lied too neither. But sometimes telling a lie is the better thing to do.

yes indeed , its so true, Life is not always black and white and sometimes, its better not to say the whoe truth. I read a story once where a man in heaven was to be judged and God refused to udge him as he said because I know the whole truth , I am not hte best person to judge him even though its true he is a dacoit and a murdered. ANd then God argued in favor of the man and told St. Peter, I can not judge him to be guilty. May be thats why at times truth is not the best option to choose.

while outright lying will get you caught sooner or later,telling fibs or lies to save a persons feelings may help in the short term,but the truth should be told at some point. I havebeen hurt and also lost a great deal of money due to lies,so yes,I am fairly watchfull now of people till I really get to know them. Thanks to my wiccan teachings,I am now able to centre myself better at reading people,and I find,it does help me get to understand them better.

Sometimes there are occasions when you have to bend the truth a little in order to avoid hurting or upsetting someone near and dear to you. I have to admit that it is often very difficult to predict how people will react when faced with the bare and unvarnished truth.

I think it is a very true statement. Put in the same situation, of cheating for example or whatever the circumstance; if it was me would I just say, "Yes, I am cheating." I don't think so. I am not in that particular circumstance, but my main reason to lie would be to not hurt the other person.

Thats is very true. I have a hard time trusting people because well I know how easy it is too lie about things. I have lied way too many times and no how easy it is so I tend to not always beleive what i hear.

I'll tell you what I think about this line... She is judging him according to what sort of person she is. People do that a lot. When people do something wrong to someone... they expect the worse... because they know what they would do to that person if he had done wrong by them. So... just because she is a filthy lier... does not mean that man is a filthy lier. You have to give credit to people before they prove you wrong. You cannot go around accusing everyone of being a lier because that is what you are.

First, the only time I lie is during the gift giving season so the element of surprise is intact.So there isn't a time when ' I would lie if I were in his place." i never assume someone is lying to me Unless I caught them in a lie before.Then I would assume Everything they say fropm now on is a lie.The exception? If like me, they were lying to keep a gift a surprise.

wow. that's really deep. but i think its really true. i have faced some situations which i made white lies and my friends would tell me that they would have lied too if they were in my situation. i feel the same way in some situations. so i guess it would really be hard to believe someone if he is telling the truth, if in my mind, i know i would lie too if i were in his position. but i would understand his position since i could have lied too just like him. in this world, we sometimes have to lie to avoid complications and to avoid hurting others. that's popularly known as white lies.

That is certainly one of life's realities. Sometimes we don't tell the truth because it would just hurt another person. But does it justify it. Well, to each is his own. Since we don't know what to believe anymore, however, we should not loose trust...trust that things will work out for the better and everything that happens must be happening for a very good reason.

I think there's a great deal of truth to that line. So often we fail to see both sides of a story but if we were really honest there are surely times when we wouldn't be so sure to tell the truth either. Great post! Annie

I do believe in that quote. People are sometimes in a difficult situation that they would lie instead of telling the truth just to save someones lives. Me i had done this before, even i will take a risk, even giving my life but i don't know. I think lies are not thoroughly lies if it can help other people like saving them.

I do agree it will leave one wondering if the person is telling the truth, especially when the situation is better if one tells a lie. However, whether I will or will not believe what the person say lies in how much I understand the person. When I understand him well, I will know if he is telling the truth. If it is a lie, I will also know why it is a lie. Of course, he could be smarter to cover up a big lie and make it as innocent as possible. LOL.

I agree there are situations that would be just complicated for nothing if you told the whole truth so and once or twice I left out something because of that, but they were harmless in the grand scheme of things, I would never do things like cheat on someone, lie about them, etc. So in that sense it is hard to follow the discussion if you know you would lie yourself.

You never know when a man is tellling the truth thats a fact . But to lie would just compond it so I never lied to my feller or my kids

I think it's a false line. I think people lie not just men. I think people lie not to spare the other persons feelings, but because they think if that other person really knew who they thought they were, they would not like them. we make up stories because we think we are protecting people from the real us. the us we think we are because we don't know how to let go of past mistakes.

It depends what they mean by it too, do they mean he'd lie to protect to someones feelings, or lie to stop himself being caught doing something wrong? The first is understandable but the second is all too common sadly. lying gets us in trouble anyway eventually as we will always get caught out people should just be honest with each other.

I know people that are brutally honest and they insist they are honest and never lie because it is for the best to be honest even it it hurts someone. I on the other hand will lie sometimes in order not to hurt the person I am talking to. I call it diplomacy!

I don't think that telling the truth is going to complicate things as much as lying because unless you are a born liar you are eventually going to get caught at it and then things do get very complicated indeed.so best to tell the truth first off and just dodge the flack if you can. lol.