Wit & Attitude Quote by Quintilian

The line lands like a dry classroom aside, the sort of wry maxim that makes students laugh and then check themselves for nervous recognition. Quintilian isn’t offering a cute observation about forgetfulness; he’s indicting deception as a labor-intensive craft. A lie isn’t one false statement but a growing ledger: who was told what, with which details, at what time, in what mood. Memory becomes the liar’s unpaid staffer, constantly cross-checking continuity so the story doesn’t collapse under casual questioning.

That’s the subtextual sting. Quintilian, Rome’s premier teacher of rhetoric, knows persuasion depends on credibility, and credibility depends on internal coherence. The liar is forced to simulate the discipline the honest speaker can largely ignore. Truth has the advantage of being self-consistent; it doesn’t require rehearsal. Falsehood, by contrast, demands narrative management. The “good memory” line is almost sarcastic praise: yes, you can be excellent at this, but your excellence is proof of your vice.

Context sharpens the point. Quintilian is writing in an imperial culture where public speech is both instrument and spectacle, and where rhetoric can be used to serve justice or flatter power. His larger project is moral: the ideal orator is a “good man skilled in speaking.” This aphorism polices the boundary. It frames lying not as a single ethical lapse but as a sustained performance requiring cognitive vigilance. Even if you “get away with it,” you’ve had to become the kind of person who organizes life around maintaining an illusion. That’s not cleverness; it’s captivity.