The only one-word lie I know is tomorrow.
From The Beginning Viewed from the End, one of 296 sayings written by John Sarris over thirty years.
From Alfred’s journal
The man who has been repainting the porch railing on Linden since June came out again this morning with the can and did not open it. He set it on the step, looked at the rail, and went back in. I have watched him do this maybe nine times and I used to think he was lazy, which was wrong; he looks at that railing the way I look at a hawk, and he is not resting, he is waiting for the hawk to leave. The only one-word lie I know is tomorrow, and it is a good lie because it is also sometimes true, which is what makes the rest of them work. Switch says the paint will go bad before the railing does. I have put off things myself, though with me it is usually a branch I mean to try and keep not trying.
He reads what you tell him and writes a page of his journal back, with a few of these chosen for you. It costs nothing and asks for nothing.
Have it on something
More like it
- A butterfly does not elude a pursuing bird by speed or by cunning, but by making smaller moves more often.
- The first time a bird hops out of its nest, it trades everything known for a chance to get closer to the sun.
- That we forget our reason for being here does not mean we don’t have one.
- Some make little of much and others make much of little.
- Life gives us more gifts in a day than we unwrap in a year.
- The lost opportunities that count most are the ones being lost in this moment.