quote · Legacy record
What is worse than doing evil, is being evil” (Ethics, p.67). To lie is wrong, but what is worse than the lie is the liar, for the liar contaminates everything he says, because everything he says is meant to further a cause that is false. The liar as liar has endorsed a world of falsehood and deception, and to focus only on the truth or falsity of his particular statements is to miss the danger of being caught up in his twisted world. This is why, as Bonhoeffer says, that “(i)t is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to lie” (Ethics, p.67).
What is worse than doing evil, is being evil” (Ethics, p.67). To lie is wrong, but what is worse than the lie is the liar, for the liar contaminates everything he says, because everything he says is meant to further a cause that is false. The liar as liar has endorsed a world of falsehood and deception, and to focus only on the truth or falsity of his particular statements is to miss the danger of being caught up in his twisted world. This is why, as Bonhoeffer says, that “(i)t is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to lie” (Ethics, p.67).
Approximate author period: c. 1925 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1925 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1906 to 1945; Wikidata Q76326, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q76326 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 231275; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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