1950s, Rediscovering Lost Values (1954)
Context: Now that isn't the only thing that convinces me that we've strayed away from this attitude, this principle. The other thing is that we have adopted a sort of a pragmatic test for right and wrong—whatever works is right. If it works, it's all right. Nothing is wrong but that which does not work. If you don't get caught, it's right. [laughter] That's the attitude, isn't it? It's all right to disobey the Ten Commandments, but just don't disobey the eleventh, "Thou shall not get caught." [laughter] That's the attitude. That's the prevailing attitude in our culture. No matter what you do, just do it with a bit of finesse. You know, a sort of attitude of the survival of the slickest. Not the Darwinian survival of the fittest, but the survival of the slickest—whoever can be the slickest is the one who right. It's all right to lie, but lie with dignity. [laughter] It's all right to steal and to rob and extort, but do it with a bit of finesse. It's even all right to hate, but just dress your hate up in the garments of love and make it appear that you are loving when you are actually hating. Just get by! That's the thing that's right according to this new ethic. My friends, that attitude is destroying the soul of our culture. It's destroying our nation.
“The slickest way in the world to lie is to tell the right amount of truth at the right time-and then shut up.”
Variant: I do know that the slickest way to lie is to tell the right amount of truth--then shut up.
Source: Stranger in a Strange Land
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Robert A. Heinlein 557
American science fiction author 1907–1988Related quotes
"Quotes", The Educated Imagination (1963), Talk 6: The Vocation of Eloquence
“You can’t be reluctant to give up your lie and still tell the truth.”
Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 44e
Source: The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois (2003), p. xi
“All right you fucks, shut up! We got a call to order!”
As quoted in "Debriefing Mike Murphy" https://www.weeklystandard.com/matt-labash/debriefing-mike-murphy (18 March 2016), by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard
2010s