All men have a feeling, that they would rather you told them a civil lie than give them a point blank refusal.... If you make a promise, the thing is still uncertain, depends on a future day, and concerns but few people; but if you refuse you alienate people to a certainty and at once, and many people too.
"The Treatises of M. T. Cicero" by C. D. Yonge, On Standing for the Consulship, section 12, p. 499, 500, 1872.
