
The Conversation | R Elias/Moment/Getty
Aristotle says that truthfulness is the virtuous middle ground between exaggeration and understatement when communicating with others. One can only become virtuous by habituation – one becomes just by doing just acts; one becomes truthful by practicing truth-telling. Unfortunately, we can much more easily steer ourselves in the opposite direction. Vice emerges from a series of small permissions and self-deceptions that break down the walls of limits and restraint.