几乎没有人能做到知行合一 （罗马皇帝，Marcus ArelIius 是个极少数的例外），也很少有团体能够严格执行其规章制度。很多规章制度只有在极其特殊的情况下才会被启用，而在大多数情况下只是起着规范和约束人们行为的作用。
只有还没被社会化，天真烂漫的孩童才会在大人们齐声夸赞皇帝新装时大声地说出诸如“他没穿衣服”的真话。可是如果这位小孩成人后保持其天真无邪的本性，时时说真话，处处说真话，恐怕在社会上会孤立无援，无立锥之地。什么时候该说真话，什么时候保持缄默，什么时候说善意的谎话，是个不容易的问题。下面摘抄的文字站在在哲学的高度提供了一些方向性的指导。
在第九章，John剖析了Bernard Williams 的最后一本著作，” Truth and Truthfulness."----这本书的主要观点是真实性是文明社会不可或缺的要素。John 显然不同意Williams 的观点. 在陈述了Williams的观点之后，John 抛出了他不同意的理由。
“I start with doubts about truthfulness in the expression of Accurate beliefs. What could be unreasonable about that is that it must be qualified and curbed by considerations of importance. It is certainly reasonable to be truthful in the expression of accurate beliefs if the beliefs are important, and if they are truthfully expressed at the right time, in the right context. But of course, they may not be. The truthful expression of Accurate beliefs may be a self-indulgent, boring, and pedantic exercise to say what everybody already knows or no one apart from oneself cares about. This happens when philosophers write like G. E. More; when chroniclers assemble lists about who begat whom; when psychologies compile responses to questionnaires and use a sophisticated statistical technique to show that people can be influenced by the opinions of others, or be manipulated, or be disturbed by traumas; when economists claim to have discovered that people are guided by what they think of as their interests; or when game theorists construct complex mathematical models to demonstrate that civilized life goes better if people trust each other than if they do not."
"...It is important to be truthful only when something important is at stake. However, it may also be important not to be truthful, especially when something important is at stake. It would not be reasonable to be truthful about secrets entrusted to one in confidence, safeguards against terrorist attacks, the location of nuclear and biological weapons, defensive strategies in case of hostilities, the identity of informants who risk their lives in providing crucial information, or the combinations of safes in which large sums of money are kept. These considerations make it obvious that the truthful expression of Accurate beliefs is not and ought not to be our "basic commitment," because it may conflict with and be overridden by other no less basic commitments. And even if we acknowledge that truthfulness is, in some sense of that far-from-clear term, an intrinsic value, there are also other ideals that have the same claim to having intrinsic value, and these other ideals may, in many cases and contexts, prove to be more important than truthfulness.
"...remember further that it may be kind and a testimony to our integrity not to be truthful about Accurate beliefs that we have about the indiscretions of colleagues, competitors, or others. Being truthful about the information that will damage others is often malicious, not virtuous. Before sincerity and authenticity became cults, it used to be thought that reticence was often admirable, spouting Accurate information about ourselves was self-indulgent, and doing so about others was a culpable failure to be truthful even about damaging information, but here are many times when we tough not to be. Nor is it a foregone conclusion that we should always be truthful even to ourselves about our failures, missed opportunities, and embarrassing past moments. It is not that we should deceive ourselves about then. Rather, we should not dwell on them, because doing so may undermine our confidence and present efforts. There are episodes in all of our lives that we wish had not happened, but if we cannot undo them and if they are not symptoms of character defects, then we might reasonably let sleeping dogs lie.
"...A further reminder is needed of our fallibility. It often happens that our truthfully expressed beliefs are inaccurate, not only because many people are inarticulate, but because the beliefs may be false. They may be based on self-deception, wishful thinking, fantasies we take to be real, misremembered episodes, or imagined insults, and then their expression may cause serious harm. They may lead to false testimony, to accusing innocent people of imagined offenses, or to being untrustworthy parents, or friends. But these harms are small-scale. Far more serious harm is caused by dogmatic ideologies, religious fanatics, and perfervid nationalists who indoctrinate followers and persecute supposed enemies on the basis of their truthfully expressed false beliefs. I take these considerations to show that although truthfulness is important, its importance is not always overriding because more important considerations may conflict with and override it."
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