White lies, polite lies [ Reading & Writing / Communication ]
… a pernicious form of social deception. P oliteness , however, frequently demand s some such deception, including white lies and discrete omissions . Eighteenth-century authors of advice manuals thus had to walk a fine line between … that proved to be elusive. Practices > Reading & Writing Practices > Communication Keywords Conversation Falsehood Lies Politeness A white lie, the OED explains, is ‘a harmless or trivial lie, esp. one told in order to avoid hurting … was doubted already long before the eighteenth century. In his De Mendacio , St Augustine condemned all kinds of lies, although he accepted that there were exceptions: he excluded ‘jocose lies’ that are self-evident and uttered …
Conversation | Falsehood | Lies | Politeness
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