Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

- Mencken, H. L.

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

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

Epictetus

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

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

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

Cicero, Marcus T.

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

Armstrong, Robert

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

Frost, Robert

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

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

Byron, Lord

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.

10.

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

Syrus, Publilius

11.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

12.

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

Proverb, Russian

13.

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

Soderbergh, Steven

14.

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

15.

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

Smith, Logan Pearsall

16.

Lying and stealing are next door neighbors.

Proverb, Arabian

17.

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

18.

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.

19.

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

20.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

21.

A liar is full of oaths.

Corneille, Pierre

22.

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

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

23.

Liars need to have good memories.

Sidney, Algernon

24.

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

25.

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

Steiner, George

26.

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

Thirkell, Angela

27.

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

Belloc, Hilaire

28.

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

Phaedrus

29.

They say is often a great liar.

Proverb

30.

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.

31.

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

Twain, Mark

32.

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Hoffer, Eric

33.

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

Watt, James

34.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

35.

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

36.

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

Twain, Mark

37.

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

38.

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

39.

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

Mcilvanney, William

40.

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

Talmud, The

41.

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

Mencken, H. L.

42.

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

Voltaire

43.

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

Feather, William

44.

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

45.

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

46.

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

Greene, Graham

47.

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

48.

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.

49.

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

50.

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

Dunne, Finley Peter