People should be legally free to argue for any viewpoint, no matter how “obviously” false and even reprehensible, in order to protect society from being enslaved to a popular but untrue belief. ―Robert P. Murphy
Tag: Lie
The government is not concerned with the truth. It lies to us regularly, consistently, systematically, and daily on matters great and small, but it prosecutes and jails those who lie to it! —Andrew Napolitano
We are approaching the brink; already a universal spiritual demise is upon us; a physical one is about to flare up and engulf us and our children, while we continue to smile sheepishly and babble: “But what can we do to stop it? We haven’t the strength.” We have so hopelessly ceded our humanity that for the modest handouts of today we are ready to surrender up all principles, our soul, all the labors of our ancestors, all the prospects of our descendants—anything to avoid disrupting our meager existence.
When violence bursts onto the peaceful human condition, its face is flush with self-assurance, it displays on its banner and proclaims: “I am Violence! Make way, step aside, I will crush you!” But violence ages swiftly, a few years pass—and it is no longer sure of itself. To prop itself up, to appear decent, it will without fail call forth its ally—Lies. For violence has nothing to cover itself with but lies, and lies can only persist through violence. And it is not every day and not on every shoulder that violence brings down its heavy hand: It demands of us only a submission to lies, a daily participation in deceit—and this suffices as our fealty.
And therein we find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal nonparticipation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold not through me!
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The truth will not be an easy path. Perhaps, but it is the easiest among those that lie before us. Not an easy choice for the body, but the only one for the soul. No, not an easy path, but then we already have among us people, who have for years lived by the truth. And so: We need not be the first to set out on this path, Ours is but to join! The more of us set out together, the thicker our ranks, the easier and shorter will this path be for us all! If we become thousands—they will not cope, they will be unable to touch us. If we will grow to tens of thousands—we will not recognize our country! —Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule let us resist in the smallest way: a personal non-participation in lies! —Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them. —from the memoir of a young girl who grew up in the Soviet Union
A young drug dealer once asked for a job on a public housing project in San Francisco. He approached Chris Albert, president of Willie Electric Company, hoping to get out of drugs and into legitimate work.
Unfortunately, because of the high wages dictated by the minimum wage law, the contractor couldn’t afford to take a chance on an unskilled man with no job record. The young man came back two days later and begged to be employed at a lower wage. “I won’t tell the law,” he promised.
“I want to make a better life for me and for my mom, and for my little sisters and brothers.” Unwilling to risk legal problems, the contractor reluctantly refused.
Two days later the young man was shot and killed. Maybe he’d be alive today if the minimum wage laws had not prevented him from working instead of being on the streets.
—Mary Ruwart, Healing Our World
You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can’t lead to a good conclusion. —Julian Assange, Founder of WikiLeaks
A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority. —Booker T. Washington