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3927 | Society prefers helpful lies to harmful truth [Hume] |
Full Idea: Truths which are pernicious to society, if any such there be, will yield to errors which are salutary and advantageous. | |
From: David Hume (Enquiry concerning Principles of Morals [1751], IX.II.228) | |
A reaction: Hume probably meant religion. Two centuries later we have a greater appetite for uncomfortable truth. |