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Quote#Truth

I really know nothing more criminal, more mean, and more ridiculous…

Quote byPhilip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield · 1694–1773

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774), 21 September 1747.

English (original)

I really know nothing more criminal, more mean, and more ridiculous than lying. It is the production either of malice, cowardice, or vanity; and generally misses of its aim in every one of these views; for lies are always detected, sooner or later.

— Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

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