The Youth's Companion/July 19, 1860/Be Careful to Speak the Truth
Be Careful to Speak the Truth.
People fall into habits of telling falsehoods by simple carelessness, through love of telling a good story, or a tendency to exaggerate, and excite wonder in listeners. Every one should be on his guard:
A lady, piqued by Johnson’s scrupulous advocacy of truth, once asserted that little variations in narrative must happen a thousand times a day, if one is not perpetually watching.
“Well, madam,” said Johnson, “and you ought to be perpetually watching. It is more from carelessness about truth, than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world.”