Hilaire Belloc? Solomon Cohen? John Butler Yeats? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Absolute candor leads to social friction, alienation, and hostility. People tell lies to avoid hurting the feelings of others. Also, people embellish the truth to construct entertaining anecdotes from humdrum events. Further, people alter the truth to avoid harsh certainties. The following controversial adage provides a justification:
Without a little falsehood life would be impossible.
Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1941 French-English writer Hilaire Belloc published “The Silence Of The Sea and Other Essays”. The quotation appeared within an essay titled “On Speaking Too Soon”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Telling the news, like telling any kind of truth, is dangerous and cannot be unlimited. Obviously dangerous to the man who tells the truth, but dangerous also to the community he addresses. The only practical debate in the matter is on the degree of falsehood that ought to be admitted in order that the truth shall be of value.
We are all agreed that without a little falsehood life would be impossible. Gold cannot be worked without an alloy, it is not stiff enough.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1885 a newspaper in Galloway, Scotland printed a thematically related statement while acknowledging another newspaper:2
Life would he intolerable if every one were bound to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, in response to any queries an impertinent curiosity may prompt.—World.
In 1900 a Hindi textbook was translated and published under the title “The Assembly of Mirth: A Literal Translation Into English of the Sabhá Bilása”. The following pertinent statement was included:3
Without (a little) falsehood one’s words appear insipid, but too much falsehood (brings) trouble on one’s house.
In 1917 New York businessman Solomon Cohen published “What is God?” which contained a partial match for the statement under examination:4
Folly seems to be the spice of life. A fool makes us laugh and we enjoy his foolery. The same holds good of falsehood. Without falsehood life would be intolerable. People often say that they love the truth, but in so saying they are not telling the truth, for truth cannot get along in the world. Truth is opposed to all make-believe, and without make-believe, social life is almost impossible.
In 1923 the Irish poet William Butler Yeats published a book that had been written by his father titled “Early Memories: Some Chapters of Autobiography by John Butler Yeats”. John described the tendency of his father to fictionalize experiences:5
Sometimes my father’s and another man’s account of the same incident would widely differ; but I always preferred what my father said. William Morris told my son that Kipling when a boy would come home from a days walk with stories of the day’s adventures which were all fiction. I wonder if Shakespeare would always cleave to the truth in the common matters of every day.
At no time did I lose respect for my father, I knew with him it was only the gentle sport of ‘make believe’ without which life would be intolerable to men who live by their affections. Saints and lovers and men governed by affection, poets and artists, all live in phantasy, its falsehood truer than any reality. By such falsehood we got nearer to truth.
In 1929 the “Daily Mirror” of London printed a germane note from a correspondent named S. Jackson:6
I hate humbug, but surely life would be intolerable without some insincerity. Do your correspondents suggest that it would be better to say “wretch!” or “pig!” instead of “dear!” and “darling!”?
In 1941 Hilaire Belloc included the adage in his essay titled “On Speaking Too Soon” as mentioned at the beginning of this article:7
We are all agreed that without a little falsehood life would be impossible. Gold cannot be worked without an alloy, it is not stiff enough.
In 1957 BBC television broadcast a quiz show titled “Who Said That?” Panelists were asked about the origin and quality of various quotations. The publication “Radio Times” indicated that an episode aired on August 12, 1957 discussed the following statement which partially matched the quotations from Solomon Cohen and Hilaire Belloc:8
‘Without a little falsehood life would be intolerable’
In conclusion, Hilaire Belloc deserves credit for the quotation which is being explored. Thematic precursors appeared many years earlier.
Image Notes: Illustration of a street sign at the intersection of “Truth” and “Lie” from geralt at Pixabay. The image has been cropped.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to British quotation expert Nigel Rees who mentioned in the October 2023 issue of his newsletter the quotation in the 1957 BBC TV show. This mention inspired QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1941, The Silence Of The Sea and Other Essays by Hilaire Belloc, Chapter: On Speaking Too Soon, Start Page 158, Quote Page 158, Cassell and Company, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1885 September 18, Kirkcudbrightshire Advertiser and Galloway News, (Filler item), Quote Page 6, Column 6, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. (British Newspaper Archive) ↩︎
- 1900, The Assembly of Mirth: A Literal Translation Into English of the Sabhá Bilása: One of the Degree of Honour Hindí Text-Books by G. W Gilbertson, Quote Page 116, Benares, India. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1917 Copyright, What is God? by Solomon Cohen, Chapter 4: The Relationship Between God and Man, Quote Page 33, 36 East Broadway, New York. (Internet Archive) link ↩︎
- 1923, Early Memories: Some Chapters of Autobiography by John Butler Yeats, Quote Page 38, The Cuala Press, Churchtown, Dundrum, Ireland. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1929 November 8, Daily Mirror, As It Strikes Our Readers: Insincerity, (Note from S. Jackson), Quote Page 9, Column 4, London, England. (British Newspaper Archive) ↩︎
- 1941, The Silence Of The Sea and Other Essays by Hilaire Belloc, Chapter: On Speaking Too Soon, Start Page 158, Quote Page 158, Cassell and Company, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1957 August 9, Radio Times, Volume 136, Number 1761, Issue Date: August 11 to 17, Television Programmes for August 12, Times: 7:30 PM, Programme: Who Said That?, Quote Page 11, Column 1, BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) Publications, London. (BBC Genome at genome.ch.bbc.co.uk) link ↩︎