Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

- Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

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

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.

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.

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

Frost, Robert

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

Soderbergh, Steven

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

Canetti, Elias

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

Mencken, H. L.

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

13.

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

Cicero, Marcus T.

14.

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

15.

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.

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

Phaedrus

19.

A liar is full of oaths.

Corneille, Pierre

20.

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

Twain, Mark

21.

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.

22.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

23.

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

24.

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.

25.

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

26.

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

Antrim, Minna

27.

They say is often a great liar.

Proverb

28.

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

Greene, Graham

29.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

30.

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

France, Anatole

31.

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

Homer

32.

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

Thirkell, Angela

33.

Lying and stealing are next door neighbors.

Proverb, Arabian

34.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

35.

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

Proust, Marcel

36.

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

Aristotle

37.

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

Cocteau, Jean

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

41.

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

Thatcher, Margaret

42.

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

Twain, Mark