"Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks"
About this Quote
Civilization, Lin Yutang suggests, is less a cathedral of truth than a well-run dinner party: people keep their elbows in, pass the salt, and sand down whatever would start a fight. The phrase "polished lying" is the giveaway. He is not talking about fraud or propaganda; he is talking about etiquette, tact, and the small social fictions that let strangers share space without constantly testing each other to destruction. "Polished" implies craft and restraint, a lie refined into something almost ethical because it serves a communal purpose.
The bite comes from how calmly he frames this as a prerequisite: society "can exist only" if we practice selective dishonesty and self-censorship. It's a confession dressed up as sociology. Underneath is a gently cynical view of human nature: our raw opinions are too jagged for daily coexistence, and sincerity is not automatically a virtue when it becomes a performance of aggression. "No one says exactly what he thinks" reads like an indictment of hypocrisy, but also like a survival manual for crowded modern life.
Context matters. Lin was a Chinese writer and cultural mediator who moved between East and West, steeped in traditions where face-saving and indirectness can function as social lubrication, not moral failure. Read against Western fantasies of radical candor, the line is a provocation: if you demand absolute honesty, you may get less freedom, not more, because constant truth-telling can become constant policing. Lin's intent isn't to celebrate lying; it's to expose the hidden cost of harmony - and why we keep paying it.
The bite comes from how calmly he frames this as a prerequisite: society "can exist only" if we practice selective dishonesty and self-censorship. It's a confession dressed up as sociology. Underneath is a gently cynical view of human nature: our raw opinions are too jagged for daily coexistence, and sincerity is not automatically a virtue when it becomes a performance of aggression. "No one says exactly what he thinks" reads like an indictment of hypocrisy, but also like a survival manual for crowded modern life.
Context matters. Lin was a Chinese writer and cultural mediator who moved between East and West, steeped in traditions where face-saving and indirectness can function as social lubrication, not moral failure. Read against Western fantasies of radical candor, the line is a provocation: if you demand absolute honesty, you may get less freedom, not more, because constant truth-telling can become constant policing. Lin's intent isn't to celebrate lying; it's to expose the hidden cost of harmony - and why we keep paying it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Honesty & Integrity |
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