Omission Quotes

We regret the things we don't do more than the things we do.

If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.

A half truth is a whole lie.

Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends... ...when millions are slaughtered, when torture is practiced, starvation enforced, oppression made a policy, as at present over a large part of the world, and as it has often been in the past, it must be at the behest of very many good people, and even by their direct action, for what they consider a worthy object.

Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie.

Partial truths or half-truths are often more insidious than total falsehoods.

What’s the difference between my fabricating reports and your letting your agents do it? At least mine make sense.

I'm as proud of what we don't do as I am of what we do.

White lies keep social dignity intact and are far more prevalent than most people realize. Several studies have found that an average person is lied to from 10 to 200 times a day - mostly just to keep a conversation going, to avoid conflict, or to establish a connection with someone.

Half a truth is often a great lie.

The camera cannot lie. But it can be an accessory to untruth.

No one in a novel by Virginia Woolf ever filled up the petrol tank of her car. No one in Hemingway's postwar novels ever worried about the effects of prolonged exposure to the threat of nuclear war.

It is almost always the cover-up rather than the event that causes trouble.

We thought we would get around to it sometime down the line. Theoretically we could have regulated it, but it wasn't on our radar screen.

Lying is one of the techniques of politicians .... They are economical with the truth.

Knowing what to do and not doing it is the same as not knowing what to do.

… conspicuous by his absence.

Well, the truth is that a lot of people lie about their health, they lie about the finances, they lie about things at work, they lie about things.

In each case you settle on an act. Doing nothing at all counts as an act.

We tend to think that people are more to blame for their acts than for their omissions.

Since those don’t hit financial reports, the opportunities you had but didn’t accept, most people don’t bother thinking about them very much. At least that is a mistake we don’t make. We rub our own noses in our mistakes in blowing opportunities, as we just did.

Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends.

I've never kept a record of anything.

Knowing what to leave out is just as important as knowing what to focus on.

For instance, take this sample: he has imagined a heaven, and has left entirely out of it the supremest of all his delights, the one ecstasy that stands first and foremost in the heart of every individual of his race - and of ours - sexual intercourse!It is as if a lost and perishing person in a roasting desert should be told by a rescuer he might choose and have all longed-for things but one, and he should elect to leave out water!