The domino effect of lying — once you tell one lie you'll have to tell another lie to cover the previous one. This will be followed by another and eventually you'll forget that you'd told a certain lie and the person you thought you'd fooled will discover that you'd been lying to him/her all along. Would, "I wanted to protect from the truth" suffice as a good reason for telling the lies? I think not.
The aspect of telling white lies kind of goes into the factor of how you were brought up. I can understand if you are conducting business and perhaps what to tell a potential client that a business is doing better than it actually is that someone factor but that's also something that someone can look up. I don't believe in telling any type of lies in a relationship. That also includes the business relationships, because you really want to go to the process of ensuring that the other party knows absolutely everything the lead to in regards to making their an educated decision on a situation. But lying in any type of way you take away that ability.
This depends a lot on what we are talking about. Serious things, sure, tell the truth, but small meaningless things that can cause pain? Many times we are better with our mouth shut, that's what my experience tells me.
If you lie to someone and that lie makes them not trust you anymore, then there is your boundary. All of a sudden, it's not a white lie anymore. A white lie has no negative consequence to the person being lied to.
I really can't think of many circumstances in which a lie can be beneficial to the person telling it, or on the receiving end of the lie. With regards to kids, there are ways that parents can explain things in a way that they will understand and will not hurt the child. The only white lies I have ever told my kids are about things such as Santa and the Easter bunny. These are ok lies because they build upon a child's imagination and give them something to get excited about, but it is never fun when they learn the truth that these characters do not exist. With friends and family, I would much rather tell the truth, even if it is ugly, and deal with the short term consequences.
