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About this quote

What does it mean?
Deception works temporarily or partially, but eventually the public sees through it.
In plain terms
You can trick some people some of the time, but not all of them all of the time.
What can you take from it?
Truth eventually outlasts deception.

Where it applies

  • politics
  • business
  • daily interactions

Putting it to work

  • be transparent
  • avoid manipulation

Questions to consider

  • How do you verify truth?
  • When have you been fooled?

Another view

Some deceptions can last indefinitely if unchecked.

More from Abraham Lincoln

  1. I cannot bring myself to believe that any human being lives who would do me harm.

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  2. To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.

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  3. I believe, if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. There see…

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