Liars share with those they deceive the desire not to be deceived.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that liars and their victims both want to avoid deception, highlighting a shared human desire for honesty.
Sissela Bok's quote illustrates the complex relationship between liars and those they deceive, emphasizing that both parties have a mutual interest in truthfulness. It points to a fundamental aspect of human interactions: the desire for trust and authenticity. The act of lying creates a paradox where the liar simultaneously yearns for the same honesty that they disrupt, reflecting on the moral implications of deceit and the inherent struggles of interpersonal relationships.
In practice
In a discussion about integrity in leadership, one might quote this to emphasize the value of honesty.
I believe that a guarantee of public access to government information is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless.
To mature is in part to realize that while complete intimacy and omniscience and power cannot be had, self-transcendence, growth, and closeness to others are nevertheless within one's reach.
Trust is a social good to be protected just as much as the air we breathe or the water we drink. When it is damaged, the community as a whole suffers; and when it is destroyed, societies falter and collapse
Are people the best judges of their own happiness, or outsiders? In defining happiness, should we think of entire lives or of shorter periods such as moments, days, or years? And to what extent are virtue and happiness linked?
We are all, in a sense, experts on secrecy. From earliest childhood we feel its mystery and attraction. We know both the power it confers and the burden it imposes. We learn how it can delight, give breathing space and protect.
Secrecy is as indispensable to human beings as fire, and as greatly feared.
Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.
Though the object of being a Great Power is to be able to fight a Great War, the only way of remaining a Great Power is not to fight one.
Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery.
The starting-point of critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one really is, and is 'knowing thyself'as a product of the historical processes to date, which has deposited in you an infinity of traces, without leaving an inventory.
I must go in, the fog is rising.
Ideas come from the Earth. They come from every human experience that youβve either witnessed or have heard about, translated into your brain in your own sense of dialogue, in your own language form. Ideas are born from what is smelled, heard, seen, experienced, felt, emotionalized. Ideas are probably in the air, like little tiny items of ozone.
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