"A person who does not tell lies
will not believe that others tell
them. From old habit, he cannot
break the connection between
words and things. This is to labour
under a great disadvantage in his
transactions with *men of the world:*
it is playing against sharpers with
loaded dice. The secret of plausibility
and success is *point-blanc lying.*
The advantage which men of business
have over the dreamers and sleep-
walkers is not in knowing the exact
state of a case, but in telling you with
a grave face what is not, to suit their
own purposes. This is one obvious
reason why students and book-worms
are so often reduced to their last legs.
Education (which is a study and discipline
of abstract truth) is a diversion to the
instinct of lying and a bar to fortune."

William Hazlitt
*Aphorisms on Man*
(# XXXVIII)