TWAIN, Mark. Great American novelist on "the silent lie - the deception which one conveys by simply keeping still and concealing the truth"

Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), was an American author and humorist most famous for his novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (1876) and its sequel “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1885) (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain ).

Mark Twain on lying by omission, “the silent lie” (1882): “An injurious lie is an uncommendable thing and so, also, and in the same degree, is an injurious truth--a fact that is recognized by the law of libel. Among other common lies we have the silent lie – the deception which one conveys by simply keeping still and concealing the truth. Many obstinate truth-mongers indulge in this dissipation, imagining that if they speak no lie, they lie not at all.” [1].

[1]. Mark Twain (1882) , “On the Decay of the Art of Lying”: http://www.scribd.com/doc/522705/Semantikoncom-Presents-Mark-Twains-On-the-Art-and-decay-of-Lying-red-Letter-Edition .

Mark Twain (famous American writer): “Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse” (Graham Hancock: http://grahamhancock.com/phorum/read.php?2,364853,364853 ).

Mark Twain (US writer): “One of the most striking difference between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives) ” (Susan Ratcliffe, editor, “Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by Subject”, Oxford University Press, 2000, page 223).