Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

- Homer

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

To the rulers of the state then, if to any, it belongs of right to use falsehood, to deceive either enemies or their own citizens, for the good of the state: and no one else may meddle with this privilege.

Plato

There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one's self on lies and fables.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

Syrus, Publilius

A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.

Twain, Mark

One may sometimes tell a lie, but the grimace that accompanies it tells the truth.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

Mencken, H. L.

Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego, lessens the friction of social contacts. It is only in lies, wholeheartedly and bravely told, that human nature attains through words and speech the forbearance, the nobility, the romance, the idealism, that -- being what it is -- it falls so short of in fact and in deed.

Luce, Clare Boothe

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

10.

The lie is a condition of life.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

11.

Grow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth. Do not follow those who lie in contempt of reality. Let your lie be even more logical than the truth itself, so the weary travelers may find repose.

Milosz, Ceslaw

12.

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

13.

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

14.

There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.

Churchill, Winston

15.

If you tell a lie, always rehearse it. If it don't sound good to you, it won't sound good to anybody.

Paige, Leroy ''Satchel''

16.

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

Greene, Graham

17.

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

Smith, Logan Pearsall

18.

Don't join the book burners. Do not think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

19.

A lie will easily get you out of a scrape, and yet, strangely and beautifully, rapture possesses you when you have taken the scrape and left out the lie.

Montague, C. E.

20.

Good lies need a leavening of truth to make them palatable.

Mcilvanney, William

21.

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

22.

Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

23.

That's not a lie, it's a terminological inexactitude. Also, a tactical misrepresentation.

Haig, Alexander

24.

Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

25.

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

Feather, William

26.

And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but the truth in masquerade.

Byron, Lord

27.

If you do not wish to be lied to, do not ask questions. If there were no questions, there would be no lies.

Traven, B.

28.

Where lies are easily admitted, the father of lies is not easily kept out. Source unknown A great leader molds public opinion, a wise leader listens to it.

29.

The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

30.

It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

Aristotle

31.

Lies are essential to humanity. They are perhaps as important as the pursuit of pleasure and moreover are dictated by that pursuit.

Proust, Marcel

32.

They say is often a great liar.

Proverb

33.

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

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

34.

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

Canetti, Elias

35.

Words that are saturated with lies or atrocity, do not easily resume life.

Steiner, George

36.

Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.

Evans

37.

In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our word.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

38.

Liars need to have good memories.

Sidney, Algernon

39.

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

Thatcher, Margaret

40.

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

41.

Each day a few more lies eat into the seed with which we are born, little institutional lies from the print of newspapers, the shock waves of television, and the sentimental cheats of the movie screen.

Mailer, Norman

42.

The cruelest lies are often told in silence. A man may have sat in a room for hours and not opened his mouth, and yet come out of that room a disloyal friend or a vile calumniator.

Stevenson, Robert Louis

43.

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

44.

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

Thirkell, Angela

45.

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

Cocteau, Jean

46.

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

47.

This is the punishment of a liar: he is not believed, even when he speaks the truth.

Talmud, The

48.

It is sometimes necessary to lie damnably in the interests of the nation.

Belloc, Hilaire

49.

Lying is not only excusable; it is not only innocent; it is, above all, necessary and unavoidable. Without the ameliorations that it offers, life would become a mere syllogism and hence too metallic to be borne.

Mencken, H. L.

50.

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

South, Bishop Robert