In Psychology Today Dalrymple analyzes Shakespeare’s Sonnet 138 to argue that deceit is sometimes necessary and even kind:

This sonnet raises the ethical problem of truth-telling in human life. The great philosopher Kant says we must never tell a lie in any circumstances, but Shakespeare—in this—was surely both the better philosopher and better psychologist than Kant. We all need to hold on to our illusions, sometimes at least, and we need them upheld. We cannot live entirely in truth.

‪H/t Andrew S.‬