Precept and Practice – SEPTEMBER 10 – Untruthfulness

When, therefore, we speak of the desire to appear well in the eyes of others as a common cause of untruthfulness, we speak of the corruption of a desire which, in its original essence, is noble and inspiring.  Yet how general and widespread this corruption is!   So widespread and general, indeed, that it is very rare to hear any one give an account of a transaction in which themselves have been engaged with perfect fidelity to truth.   If the transaction is unworthy, or has not succeeded, they minish, or pass lightly over, their own share in it.   If the transaction has been successful, or merits praise, immediately their own share in it grows eminently conspicuous.   At first these diminutions, and exaggerations, are followed by qualms of conscience and a sense of shame.   But, by degrees, all sense of this ethical discomfort is deadened;  and the diminutions of self-blame and the exaggerations (direct or indirect, expressed or implied) of self-praise proceed almost unconsciously.   At length, with scarcely any provocation whatever beyond the provocation of self-importance, people will say they have said things which they have never said, or have done things which they never did.   Their hold upon truthfulness is relaxed;  and all harmony between what actually is, and what is said to have been, between the sober fact and the self-enlarging fiction, disappears and is gone. 

(Bishop Diggle – Sermons for Daily Life)

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW