Hilaire Belloc Quotes
It is sometimes necessary to lie damnably in the interest of the country.
Hilaire Belloc, 1870-1953, British Writer & Political Biographer, Member of Parliament (Liberal), Letter to C. K. Chesterton
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Historically almost all dictators seized their power and war criminals committed their murders to “save their nation.”
He was referring to the tendency of Arab diplomats and leaders to privately assure U. S. leaders about issues and then go home and make speeches in Arabic completely different from their private assurances and commitments. He advocated ignoring all private statements by Arabs and paying attention only to what they say in their own country and in Arabic. For a good example of an Arab politician doing this, see {585490}.
While there are dramatic exceptions such as during the Nixon and George W. Bush administrations, compared to most other nations were the indicator of official lying is a leader’s lips moving, the United States is among the leading nations with respect to official deception of the citizens.
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was a British-French writer and historian and one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic faith had a strong impact on his works. He was President of the Oxford Union and later MP for Salford South from 1906 to 1910. He was a noted disputant, with a number of long-running feuds. Belloc became a naturalised British subject in 1902 while retaining his French citizenship.
