Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

- Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

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

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

Watt, James

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

Twain, Mark

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

Homer

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

Belloc, Hilaire

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

Crowley, Aleister

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

Talmud, The

10.

By a lie, a man...annihilates his dignity as a man.

Kant, Immanuel

11.

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

12.

If you wish to strengthen a lie, mix a little truth in with it.

Zohar

13.

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

14.

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

Byron, Lord

15.

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

Dunne, Finley Peter

16.

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

Speakes, Larry

17.

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

18.

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

Szilard, Leo

19.

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''

20.

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

Phaedrus

21.

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

Aristotle

22.

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

23.

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

Steiner, George

24.

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

Epictetus

25.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

26.

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

Greene, Graham

27.

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

Armstrong, Robert

28.

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

Syrus, Publilius

29.

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

30.

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

31.

The lie is a condition of life.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

32.

Great talker, great liar.

Proverb, French

33.

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.

34.

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

35.

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.

36.

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

37.

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

38.

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

France, Anatole

39.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

43.

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.

44.

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.

45.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

46.

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

Soderbergh, Steven

47.

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

48.

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

South, Bishop Robert

49.

Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.

Evans

50.

Liars need to have good memories.

Sidney, Algernon