It needs no definition – you know what I’m talking about. They’re the little untruths we tell ourselves and everyone else that keep us from living an authentic life. We think our little white lies are harmless because they’re not actually hurting anyone – but when we look closer, we see that’s not true.

Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love. – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov