# Quote — Sissela Bok, Lying

> When we undertake to deceive others intentionally, we communicate messages meant to mislead them, meant to make them believe what we ourselves do not believe. We can do so through gesture, through disguise, by means of action or inaction, even through silence.

- Author: [Sissela Bok](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sissela-bok.md)
- Book: [Lying](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sissela-bok/lying.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sissela_Bok#Lying:_Moral_Choice_in_Public_and_Private_Life_(1978)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/sissela-bok/lying/when-we-undertake

## More from this book

> Trust and integrity are precious resources, easily squandered, hard to regain. They can thrive only on a foundation of respect for veracity.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sissela-bok/lying/trust-and-integrity.md)

> Act only on the maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sissela-bok/lying/act-only-on-the.md)

> Honesty from health professionals matters more to patients than almost everything else that they experience when ill.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sissela-bok/lying/honesty-from-health.md)