Honesty or Lie

One of the first thing s that teachers and parents impress upon children is the importance of always telling the truth. In the United States, young George Washington admitted his fault, by saying, “father, I cannot tell a lie!” In addition, all religions insist that lying is a sin. But I think there are times when telling the truth can do more harm than good.
In wartime, both soldiers and civilians are considered heroes if, despite torture, the refuse to tell the enemy what they know about the situation of their own side. Indeed, if they can deceive the enemy by lying and leading them into a trap, this is regarded as highly praiseworthy behavior. Obviously, to tell the truth in such circumstances would be foolish, and even treacherous.
On a more personal level, when a friend is feeling unwell or even just depressed, it is often unwise to tell him that he looks really ill; doing so can make him feel worse, and could cause him to really fall ill. Conversely, by telling a lie and saying that he looks fine, you will make him feel better and probably help him to recover. In that case you would have done well, not harm, by not telling the you think looks ridiculous, it would be unkind to give your frank opinion. That would only make her feel embarrassed for days or even weeks until she could change the style. So telling a lie by saying that her hair looks wonderful would do not harm in this case.
Everyone during his or her lifetime will inevitably face moments when it is better to hide the truth. A poor mother gives the only piece of bread to her child, saying that she has a bread eaten enough; a seriously ill girl determines to part company with boyfriend, telling him that she does not love him anymore and thinking that temporary disappointment will spare him the long term pain of knowing the truth; and never is this more true than when a patient eagerly awaits a diagnosis form his doctor on whether he has cancer or not. Numerous examples can be given easily, but these will suffice. If telling the truth would do more harm than good, then sometimes it is better not to tell the true.