Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

Cocteau, Jean

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

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

The lie is a condition of life.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

Talmud, The

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

Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.

Evans

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

Mencken, H. L.

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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.

13.

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

Proust, Marcel

14.

Great talker, great liar.

Proverb, French

15.

A liar is full of oaths.

Corneille, Pierre

16.

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

Antrim, Minna

17.

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.

18.

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

Canetti, Elias

19.

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

Mcilvanney, William

20.

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

21.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

22.

Lies are essential to humanity. They are perhaps as important as the pursuit of pleasure and moreover are dictated by that pursuit.

Proust, Marcel

23.

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

Smith, Logan Pearsall

24.

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.

25.

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

Watt, James

26.

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

27.

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

Belloc, Hilaire

28.

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

Dunne, Finley Peter

29.

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.

30.

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

Williams, Tennessee

31.

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Hoffer, Eric

32.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

33.

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

Thirkell, Angela

34.

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

Feather, William

35.

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

36.

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

Twain, Mark

37.

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.

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

Twain, Mark

41.

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