It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place. – Henry Louis Mencken, A Little Book in C Major, 1916
It is not difficult to deceive the first time, for the deceived possesses no antibodies; unvaccinated by suspicion, she overlooks lateness, accepts absurd excuses, permits the flimsiest patching to repair great rents in the quotidian. – John Updike