"I know of no sentence that can induce such immediate and brazen lying as the one that begins, 'Have you read - .'"

This quote by Wilson Mizner is an amusing observation about the human propensity to lie. He recommends that when somebody starts a sentence with the phrase "Have you read - ", it is an invitation for people to lie. This is since the individual asking the concern is most likely to presume that the person they are asking has checked out the book, therefore the person being asked is likely to lie and state that they have read it, even if they have not. This quote is an amusing method of pointing out the tendency of people to lie in order to appear more knowledgeable or outstanding than they really are. It is a pointer that we ought to beware when asking concerns, as people may not always inform the truth.