When could you lie?

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I'm wondering when others would be able to justify outright deceit. One of the things that has run through my mind why contemplating how I got myself fired is under what conditions I could lie. I certainly seem unable to even twist the truth when it comes to my defending myself. I did conclude that if it was necessary to protect someone else from harm I could justify it. Like if the Gestapo showed up at the door and I knew the neighbors were harboring Jews in the attic.

Any lie can be kept secret by two if one of them is dead.

I could lie at any time depending on the situation and motivation at the time. I actually have pretty ambivalent feelings towards "truth". One persons truth is another persons lie and vice versa. It's the same thing with Right and Wrong. I don't really believe in those either. It's all just shades of gray.

And Columbo, if you give him enough time.

I don't have much of an ethical problem with it these days. Lying is a form of competitive behaviour which is entirely appropriate in a world of mostly competitive people, until such time as they clean up their act.

But I often find it difficult to lie, particularly to anybody who either seems honest themselves, or at least hasn't definitively demonstrated their dishonesty. I'd feel guilty and I'd be anxious that I might get found out. My parents had a huge "thing" about honesty, which is laudible in many ways but unfortunately is also a great way of getting yourself trodden into the dirt. To this day I can really let myself down by being too truthful - I bitterly regret saying "yes" when my GP asked me whether I was a smoker.

I used to be quite purist about it too. I extended the definition of lying to include any deliberate attempt to give a false impression. If I'd known about the term "pathological honesty," I'd have seen it as a contradiction in terms. But experience of the real world forced me to change my view.

Most of my dishonesty isn't really what you'd call outright lies, I do it more by what I don't say than what I do say. It's no less competitive, just harder to get caught. And I conceal loads of stuff about what I don't like about other people.

Lying to a partner is a thing I've always felt really bad about - I feel that such a relationship needs to be noncompetitive if it's going to work. But I can do a lot of damage by being brutally frank. These days I try to use what they call discretion. I have to remember that just because some truth or other comes into my head, doesn't mean I have a duty to say it.

I really don't like to, but my job requires me to lie at least a few times a day. The one good thing is that usually I am untruthful over the phone. LOL The people I am typically misleading are either solicitors or other cold callers, but on occasion, I also have to do it to a customer. If I had to lie in person, I could never do it! Even my boss says I am a bad liar. Lying goes against every fiber of my being. I hate it! I doubt I will ever feel comfortable with lying.

I can lie if I convince myself that at least part of it is true. most of the time I'm not really convincing though.

I'm absolutely incapable of any improvised lying.

I'm not a good liar, either. Deception is not my forte.

Leave the truth in plain sight, and watch the fools search forever. I sometimes think that if I present the truth as a lie, more people would believe it.

The only time I lie is when I know the person I'm lieing to has lied to me in the past. That person showed no respect to me by deciving me. I'm showing them the same respect, zero.

I lie every day, every moment, excluding this one.