Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The quote suggests lies are used to signal that the liar does not value the other person's opinion or presence.
In plain terms
Lies show we don’t care about the other’s view.
What can you take from it?
Deception often masks indifference.

Where it applies

  • personal relationships
  • negotiation
  • political rhetoric

Putting it to work

  • recognize deceptive motives
  • address underlying neglect
  • foster honest dialogue

Questions to consider

  • Why do people lie to distance themselves?
  • When is lying justified, if ever?

Another view

Not all lies stem from indifference; some protect feelings or safety.

More from Theodor Adorno

  1. 'It is not man's lapse into luxurious indolence that is to be feared, but the savage spread of the social under the mask of universal nature, the collective as…

    Permalink to quote #53
  2. 'Life has become the ideology of its own absence.'

    Permalink to quote #55
  3. 'Intelligence is a moral category.'

    Permalink to quote #52

Related quotes

  1. If you say to someone who has ears to hear: 'What you are doing to me is not just,' you may touch and awaken at its source the spirit of attention and love. Bu…

    Simone WeilSimone Weil quote #20
  2. Let us live in as small a circle as we will, we are either debtors or creditors before we have had time to look round.

    Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe quote #59
  3. You aren't very good at determining what other people want and need from you... No one is. We're all as likely to hurt as help.

    Orson Scott CardOrson Scott Card quote #224