p. 8 | Falsehood by John Ruskin

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, Cal. · Feb 7, 1911

Falsehood

By John Ruskin

It is not calumny nor treachery that does the largest sum of mischief in the world; they are continually crushed, and are felt only in being conquered. But it is the glistening and softly spoken lie, the amiable fallacy, the patriotic lie of the historian, the provident lie of the politician, the zealous lie of the partisan, the merciful lie of the friend, and the careless lie of each man to himself, that casts that black mystery over his humanity, through which every man who pierces we thank, as we would thank one who dug through a well in a desert.—Ruskin.