The first sign of corrupt morals is the banishing of truth.
[Le premier traict de la corruption des mœurs, c’est le bannissement de la verité]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 18 (2.18), “Of Giving the Lie [Du Démentir]” (1578–79) [tr. Screech (1987)]
(Source)
This essay (and this passage) appeared in the 1st (1580) edition, and was expanded in each succeeding edition.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:The first part of customs-corruption, is the banishment of truth.
[tr. Florio (1603)]The first step to the corruption of manners is banishing of truth.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]The first thing done in the corruption of manners is banishing truth.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]The first feature of corruption of morals is the banishment of truth.
[tr. Ives (1925)]The first feature in the corruption of morals is the banishment of truth.
[tr. Zeitlin (1934)]The first stage in the corruption of morals is the banishment of truth.
[tr. Frame (1943)]
Quotations about:
mendacity
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
These statements were, as he felt even in making them, not only gratuitous, but utterly unconvincing, but he had arrived at that condition in which a man discovers with terror the unsuspected amount of mendacity latent in his system.
F. Anstey (1856-1934) English novelist and journalist (pseud. of Thomas Anstey Guthrie)
The Brass Bottle, ch. 9 “Persicos Odi, Puer, Apparatus” (1900)
(Source)
Originally published in The Strand Magazine (1900-04).
