Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

Someone who always has to lie discovers that every one of his lies is true.

- Canetti, Elias

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

Truth will lose its credit, if delivered by a person that has none.

South, Bishop Robert

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

Syrus, Publilius

In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

If a lie is repeated often enough all the dumb jackasses in the world not only get to believe it, they even swear by it.

Franklin, Billy Boy

One can be absolutely truthful and sincere even though admittedly the most outrageous liar. Fiction and invention are of the very fabric of life.

Miller, Henry

There is no lie that a man will not believe; and there is no man who does not believe many lies; and there is no man who believes only lies.

Sterling, John

The difference between a saint and a hypocrite is that one lies for his religion, the other by it.

Antrim, Minna

You don't tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.

Thatcher, Margaret

Liars are the cause of all the sins and crimes in the world.

Epictetus

10.

When the world has got hold of a lie, it is astonishing how hard it is to kill it. You beat it over the head, till it seems to have given up the ghost, and behold! the next day it is as healthy as ever.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G.

11.

Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically -- for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist -- but then what isn t?

Crisp, Quentin

12.

When you rationalize, you do just that. You make rational lies.

13.

They say is often a great liar.

Proverb

14.

Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

15.

Some lies are so well disguised to resemble truth, that we should be poor judges of the truth not to believe them.

16.

Liars need to have good memories.

Sidney, Algernon

17.

The middle of the road is where the white line is -- and that's the worst place to drive.

Frost, Robert

18.

Never to lie is to have no lock to your door, you are never wholly alone.

Bowen, Elizabeth

19.

Falsehood is invariably the child of fear in one form or another.

Crowley, Aleister

20.

When lying, be emphatic and indignant, thus behaving like your children.

Feather, William

21.

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.

22.

The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe.

Mencken, H. L.

23.

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

Cicero, Marcus T.

24.

No man lies so boldly as the man who is indignant.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

25.

With lies you may go ahead in the world, but you can never go back.

Proverb, Russian

26.

I do myself a greater injury in lying that I do him of whom I tell a lie.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

27.

What does the truth matter? Haven't we mothers all given our sons a taste for lies, lies which from the cradle upwards lull them, reassure them, send them to sleep: lies as soft and warm as a breast!

Bernanos, Georges

28.

It is easier to gather up a bag of loose feathers than to round up or head off a single lie.

29.

Mendacity is a system that we live in. Liquor is one way out an death's the other.

Williams, Tennessee

30.

As one knows the poet by his fine music, so one can recognize the liar by his rich rhythmic utterance, and in neither case will the casual inspiration of the moment suffice. Here, as elsewhere, practice must precede perfection.

Wilde, Oscar

31.

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

France, Anatole

32.

Whoever is detected in a shameful fraud is ever after not believed even if they speak the truth.

Phaedrus

33.

If one cannot invent a really convincing lie, it is often better to stick to the truth.

Thirkell, Angela

34.

I detest the man who hides one thing in the depth of his heart and speaks forth another.

Homer

35.

A liar is full of oaths.

Corneille, Pierre

36.

He entered the territory of lies without a passport for return.

Greene, Graham

37.

Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

38.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time till at length it becomes habitual.

Jefferson, Thomas

39.

Lying and stealing are next door neighbors.

Proverb, Arabian

40.

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Hoffer, Eric

41.

The liar at any rate recognizes that recreation, not instruction, is the aim of conversation, and is a far more civilized being than the blockhead who loudly expresses his disbelief in a story which is told simply for the amusement of the company.

Wilde, Oscar

42.

One of the striking differences between a cat and a lie is that the cat has only nine lives.

Twain, Mark

43.

Never chase a lie. Let it alone, and it will run itself to death. I can work out a good character much faster than anyone can lie me out of it

Beecher, Lyman

44.

Telling lies is a fault in a boy, an art in a lover, an accomplishment in a bachelor, and second-nature in a married man.

Rowland, Helen

45.

If you want to be thought a liar, always tell the truth.