There is a scene in "Downton Abbey" when the doctor tells Maggie Smith's character that he will not lie. She responds, "Have we nothing in common?"

The person who says he never lies is lying. On some level, everyone has to lie to survive, fortunately most lies are "white" or "sweet" lies as when you tell you mate that he/she looks great in his/her new clothes. Also, lying to children comes second nature whether or not they are are our own, e. g. Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, how babies are born, or some particular odious and out dated dogma of our religion. (At left: Pinocchio whose nose grew when he lied, making his falsehood known to everyone.)

When a public figure is accused or legally charge with a crime, his knee jerk reaction is lying. Examples are plentiful among politicians and clergy. "I am not a crook" to "I did not touch that boy inappropriately" have become memes of our times.

Now days the new and outstanding lie is called "Fake News." What is involved is outright lying in high place or in the media. Somehow to call it is "Public Lying" is too strong. No matter that either out-rightly or by innuendo, conservative organs like Fox News have been in the profitable business of lying to the people for years.

The only thing worse than lying is being so gullible as to keep on believing lies from people are obviously profiting from the "lying business." I grew up remembering the motto: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."