Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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.

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

Watt, James

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

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Hoffer, Eric

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

Proust, Marcel

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

Syrus, Publilius

Time passes, and little by little everything that we have spoken in falsehood becomes true.

Proust, Marcel

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.

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 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

10.

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

Bowen, Elizabeth

11.

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

Talmud, The

12.

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

13.

They say is often a great liar.

Proverb

14.

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

Voltaire

15.

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

Haig, Alexander

16.

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.

17.

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

Greene, Graham

18.

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

19.

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

France, Anatole

20.

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

Cicero, Marcus T.

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.

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

Smith, Logan Pearsall

23.

Don't lie if you don't have to.

Szilard, Leo

24.

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

Canetti, Elias

25.

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

Crowley, Aleister

26.

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

27.

I would dodge, not lie, in the national interest.

Speakes, Larry

28.

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

Twain, Mark

29.

Liars need to have good memories.

Sidney, Algernon

30.

Liars are always ready to take oaths.

Alfieri, Vittorio, Conte Di

31.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

32.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

33.

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.

34.

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

Epictetus

35.

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

Byron, Lord

36.

Lying and stealing are next door neighbors.

Proverb, Arabian

37.

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

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

38.

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.

39.

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

Dunne, Finley Peter

40.

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

Frost, Robert

41.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

42.

Burning lies led to my silent cries Keeping it inside I've got everything to hide. lustful desire, a burning fire You are the flame, You are to blame. Beautiful light deliver me from fright dreams full of lust. Or is the dream dreaming us? PHYSICAL PAIN don't call me insane. I don't want to be dead but all beautiful colors bleed to red

43.

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

Twain, Mark

44.

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

Armstrong, Robert

45.

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

Cocteau, Jean

46.

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.

47.

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

Thirkell, Angela

48.

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''

49.

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

Steiner, George

50.

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