A household cannot be governed by lying; nor can a nation.

Sir Thomas Browne once asked, "Do the devils lie ?" "No," was his answer; "for then even hell could not subsist." No considerations can justify the sacrifice of truth, which ought to be sovereign in all the relations of life.
Of all mean vices, perhaps lying is the meanest.

It is in some cases the offspring of perversity and vice, and in many others of sheer moral cowardice.

Yet many persons think so lightly of it that they will order their servants to lie for them; nor can they feel surprised if, after such ignoble instruction, they find their servants lying for themselves.
Sir Harry Wotton's description of an ambassador as "an honest man sent to lie abroad for the benefit of his country," though meant as a satire, brought him into disfavour with James I.when it became published; for an adversary quoted it as a principle of the king's religion.

That it was not Wotton's real view of the duty of an honest man, is obvious from the lines quoted at the head of this chapter, on 'The Character of a Happy Life,' in which he eulogises the man "Whose armour is his honest thought, And simple truth his utmost skill." But lying assumes many forms--such as diplomacy, expediency, and moral reservation; and, under one guise or another, it is found more or less pervading all classes of society.