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About this quote

What does it mean?
Truths are often so raw and uncomfortable that people instinctively soften or hide them to make them more palatable.
In plain terms
People often cover up harsh truths because the are uncomfortable to face directly.
What can you take from it?
Comfort often drives us to obscure uncomfortable truths.

Where it applies

  • personal relationships
  • public discourse
  • self-reflection

Putting it to work

  • practicing radical honesty
  • confronting difficult realities
  • analyzing euphemisms

Questions to consider

  • Why do we avoid uncomfortable truths?
  • Is total honesty always the best policy?

Another view

Sometimes softening truths is necessary to prevent unnecessary harm.

More from Edward R. Murrow

  1. Learn your language well and command it well, and you will have the first component to life.

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  2. Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.

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  3. Language is the memory of man. Without it he has no past, a paltry present, and an empty future. With it he can bring his dreams to life.

    Permalink to quote #58

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