Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

- Soderbergh, Steven

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

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

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

Armstrong, Robert

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

If a lie is repeated often enough all the dumb jackasses in the world not only get to believe it, they even swear by it.

Franklin, Billy Boy

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

Feather, William

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

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

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

Steiner, George

10.

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

11.

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

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

Kant, Immanuel

15.

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.

16.

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

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

17.

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

18.

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

Greene, Graham

19.

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

Twain, Mark

20.

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

Szilard, Leo

21.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

22.

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

Homer

23.

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.

24.

Great talker, great liar.

Proverb, French

25.

With lies you may go ahead in the world, but you can never go back.

Proverb, Russian

26.

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

Thirkell, Angela

27.

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

Dunne, Finley Peter

28.

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

29.

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

Mcilvanney, William

30.

Liars are always ready to take oaths.

Alfieri, Vittorio, Conte Di

31.

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

Mencken, H. L.

32.

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

33.

Liars need to have good memories.

Sidney, Algernon

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

Proust, Marcel

37.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

38.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

39.

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

Cicero, Marcus T.

40.

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

41.

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.

42.

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

43.

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

Cocteau, Jean

44.

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

Watt, James

45.

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

Twain, Mark

46.

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

47.

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

Belloc, Hilaire

48.

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

Epictetus

49.

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

Speakes, Larry

50.

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.