On Lying Without Speaking – Sunday, October 28, 1945
There has sometimes been an all too common assumption that truth pertains merely to what one says or writes—an assumption that if we give a wrong impression with the right words, we are still within the truth. But words are not the only way of conveying meanings. And whether or not we are truthful depends not only upon the words, we use, but also upon what our intention is and what impression we give.
The truth has not been told unless there is an honest transference of thought—an honest conveyance of meaning—regardless of what words have been used. The impressions we leave deliberately are as binding as the words we speak, and if we knowingly leave a false impression, to that extent we are not truthful, no matter what we say. Indeed, the untruth of impressions can be more vicious and more misleading than the untruth of words. A picture, an act, a gesture, may tell a thousand untruths without audibly saying a word. It is a relatively easy matter to convict a man of a spoken or a written lie, but it is often difficult to convict him of deliberately making a false impression.
You can analyze words; you can read them; you can record them; you can define them; you can hear the true or false ring of the voice that speaks them. But an unspoken lie is an illusive deception. It is akin to the kind of lying a man does when, for example, he falsely wears a uniform of some kind or other, which, without his saying so, gives the impression that he is something which he is not. For this kind of impersonation there are specific penalties. But for some kinds of impersonation, the penalties are difficult to invoke.
Nevertheless, he who acts a lie, he who lives a lie, or he who knowingly permits a deception, is guilty on moral grounds with him who deliberately speaks a lie, because both contrive to mislead the minds of others. To those with many years ahead of them, to our youth especially—and to all others—let. it be said convincingly that if you would live in honor, and with peace in your hearts, don’t offer a half-truth to anyone who has a right to the whole truth. Don’t warp the facts, either by word or by a deliberate impression—because he who deliberately falsifies without words is guilty with him who does it with words. And even though the rules of legal evidence may not always be able to hold him accountable, the rules of moral evidence will.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Oct. 28, 1945. Copyright 1945.
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October 28, 1945
Broadcast Number 0,845