Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

Great talker, great liar.

- Proverb, French

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

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

Armstrong, Robert

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

Mcilvanney, William

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

Merlin

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

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

Thatcher, Margaret

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

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

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

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.

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

12.

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

Twain, Mark

13.

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Hoffer, Eric

14.

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.

15.

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

16.

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.

17.

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

Dunne, Finley Peter

18.

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

Frost, Robert

19.

Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.

Evans

20.

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

21.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

22.

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

Voltaire

23.

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

Antrim, Minna

24.

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

Greene, Graham

25.

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''

26.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

27.

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

Szilard, Leo

28.

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

Cicero, Marcus T.

29.

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

30.

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

Kant, Immanuel

31.

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

32.

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

Williams, Tennessee

33.

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

34.

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

Proust, Marcel

35.

Great talker, great liar.

Proverb, French

36.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

37.

The lie is a condition of life.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

38.

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

Haig, Alexander

39.

All lies and jests, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.

Simon, Paul

40.

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

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

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.

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

Soderbergh, Steven

43.

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

Thirkell, Angela

44.

One can be absolutely truthful and sincere even though admittedly the most outrageous liar. Fiction and invention are of the very fabric of life.

Miller, Henry

45.

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.

46.

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

Byron, Lord

47.

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

Aristotle

48.

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.

49.

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

Bowen, Elizabeth

50.