Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

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

Twain, Mark

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

Merlin

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

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

Mcilvanney, William

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

Smith, Logan Pearsall

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

Homer

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Hoffer, Eric

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

10.

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

Mencken, H. L.

11.

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

Belloc, Hilaire

12.

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

Byron, Lord

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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

Greene, Graham

16.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

17.

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

18.

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

Cicero, Marcus T.

19.

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

Frost, Robert

20.

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

Greene, Graham

21.

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

22.

Mendacity is a system that we live in. Liquor is one way out an death's the other.

Williams, Tennessee

23.

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

Feather, William

24.

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

Twain, Mark

25.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

26.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

27.

Plato

28.

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

Armstrong, Robert

29.

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

Bowen, Elizabeth

30.

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

Zohar

31.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

32.

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.

33.

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

Kant, Immanuel

34.

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

Talmud, The

35.

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

36.

Liars are always ready to take oaths.

Alfieri, Vittorio, Conte Di

37.

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

Cocteau, Jean

38.

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.

39.

They say is often a great liar.

Proverb

40.

The lie is a condition of life.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

Aristotle

44.

Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.

Evans

45.

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.

46.

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

47.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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

Wittgenstein, Ludwig