Awesome post @ejemai, I saw a TED talk on lying, and the speaker pointed out that a lot of times lies are what you WANT yourself to be portrayed as. The stereotypical example is someone lying that they always remember their homework, that they loooove football, or (ironically) that they don't use lies.
These are usually ok, but sometimes these things are actually not only lies to someone else, but also to yourself in an attempt to trick everyone (including you) that you are better than what you actually are.
Because of that, I consider white lies very dangerous in that they distance you from reality. That could have some very all-damaging effects, and when you do finally disillusion yourself from all the things you half-convinced yourself you were, it's going to be quite rough. But again- I'm sure this is up for debate.