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

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

Thatcher, Margaret

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

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

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

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

Crowley, Aleister

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

Belloc, Hilaire

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

South, Bishop Robert

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

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

Frost, Robert

10.

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

Syrus, Publilius

11.

I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won t.

Twain, Mark

12.

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

13.

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.

14.

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

15.

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.

16.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

17.

A lie with a purpose is one of the worst kind, and the most profitable.

Dunne, Finley Peter

18.

A lie can run around the world six times while the truth is still trying to put on its pants.

Twain, Mark

19.

They say is often a great liar.

Proverb

20.

Liars are always ready to take oaths.

Alfieri, Vittorio, Conte Di

21.

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

Smith, Logan Pearsall

22.

A liar is full of oaths.

Corneille, Pierre

23.

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

24.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

25.

No lying knight or lying priest ever prospered in any age, but especially not in the dark ones. Men prospered then only in following an openly declared purpose, and preaching candidly beloved and trusted creeds.

Ruskin, John

26.

I should like to lie at your feet and die in your arms.

Voltaire

27.

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

Epictetus

28.

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

Soderbergh, Steven

29.

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

30.

All lies and jests, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.

Simon, Paul

31.

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

Antrim, Minna

32.

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

33.

When a man lies, he murders some part of the world.

Merlin

34.

In human relationships, kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths.

Greene, Graham

35.

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

Cicero, Marcus T.

36.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

37.

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

Byron, Lord

38.

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

39.

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

Twain, Mark

40.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

41.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

42.

A lie can run around the world before the truth can get its boots on.

Watt, James

43.

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

Talmud, The

44.

It contains a misleading impression, not a lie. It was being economical with the truth.

Armstrong, Robert

45.

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

46.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

47.

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

48.

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

49.

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

Bowen, Elizabeth

50.

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

France, Anatole