I’m sometimes white and always wrong
I can break a heart and hurt the strong
I can build love and tear it down
I can make a smile but more often a frown.
What/who am i?

seems to be "a lie".

But a "white lie" is one that is not wrong.  It is one made to spare another's feelings or result in some positive good.  In many instances it would be personally preferable, but morally worse to tell the truth.

To take an extreme case, when the Nazi's asked where the Jews were hidden, a lie would be right and the truth wrong.

Of course the information would be "wrong" in the sense of "the capital of England is Liverpool", but that's wrong in the sense of a factual error, not a moral wrong.

Posted by Charlie on 2005-09-12 17:56:45