On the Decay of the Art of Lying

by Mark Twain

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About this book

On the Decay of the Art of Lying is an essay by Mark Twain, read at a meeting of the Historical and Antiquarian Club of Hartford and offered for the thirty-dollar prize, and a note says it did not take the prize. The speaker says he does not mean to suggest that the custom of lying has suffered any decay or interruption, and that his complaint simply concerns the decay of the art of lying.

The speaker says lying is a necessity of our circumstances, that no virtue can reach its highest usefulness without careful and diligent cultivation, and that, therefore, it goes without saying that this one ought to be taught in the public schools, even in the newspapers. A passage defines the silent lie as the deception which one conveys by simply keeping still and concealing the truth. The speaker says an injurious lie is an uncommendable thing, and so, in the same degree, is an injurious truth, a fact recognized by the law of libel.

About the author

Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He has been praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced", with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature".