Why I Cannot Speak the Truth: 50 Reasons for Lying, Exaggerating & Escaping the Truth

Honesty is the best policy, Truth Always Triumphs, If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said etc. are all phrases we have heard time and again. Yes, it is true that truth is the most potent weapon that man has. And yet, a majority of us would hesitate before speaking the truth? Why is that so? There are many reasons, the foremost one being fear. We fear speaking the truth, for when spoken, the truth can shatter our lives, can shatter our illusions, can play havoc with our relationships, and can seriously damage the self-respect, self-image, and self-worth, of ourselves and others. It is often easier to lie, or to avoid speaking the truth, to maintain temporary harmony and peace. Speaking the truth would often involve disturbing the status quo, and producing a variety of wanted or unwanted reactions from others. Telling some what you really think about them may not get you applause. If anything, it will get you anger and arguments. It will buy you more enemies than friends. There are very few people who can speak the truth; but more than that, there are even fewer people who could receive the truth without reacting. If it takes great courage to speak the truth, it takes a million times more, to listen to it. And hence, most of us speak and hear watered down versions of the truth, half-truths, partial truths, small lies and huge lies. And this somehow seems to suit us, at least for the time being. But the truth is a very powerful entity. It has a way of rearing its head when you definitely don’t want it to. And it has the power to destroy everything, if it is misused.

This book is a collection of 50 reasons why we are resist speaking the truth. There would be many more reasons, I’m sure, but these are 50 common ones. The reader is free to add to this list. This list is compiled only to give the reader an idea of the various obvious and not so obvious reasons why we sway from the truth. After reading these fifty reasons, the reader would have a much better understanding of himself, of truth, and about how to live his own life, truthfully.
No price is too high, to pay for the truth. If you don’t realize this and uses lies, eventually you will have to pay back a thousand times what you would have had to, had you had the courage to stick to the truth.