It is curious how much one despises and condemns the vices which one does not happen to po
But this surely is one of the many false statements with which the real liar will try hard to idealize his failing: It may be inevitable and even just to tell lies, but it cannot seriously be argued that such habits are intelligent. A lie is always an act of mental cowardice, whereas intelligence is brave. And yet there was Bismarck, and yet there was Napoleon--surely intelligent men, and surely liars. The problem, therefore, is not so simple as it seems.
It was simple enough, in those old days, to define with approximate accuracy when a given statement ceased to be the truth and became a lie. The essential test was whether the maker of a false statement knew that he was saying something false, and consciously wished his audience to accept, and to remain under, this false impression. Life in civilized communities is a process of adjusting the personal to the social, of conforming the individual impression to the joint impressions of the common 'people. This process of adjustment leads inevitably and rightly to a certain unconscious deception. Absolute truth, whether unconscious or even conscious, is thus impossible. It is to relative truth only that we can hope to aspire.
The author claims that ______.
A.he wouldn't tolerate the vices that people have in common
B.he doesn't feel particular contempt for being untruthful
C.one may be tempted into untruthfulness when one comes to think of it
D.untruthfulness is a serious fault of character which he condemns strongly