Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

- South, Bishop Robert

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

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

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

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

France, Anatole

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

Proust, Marcel

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

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.

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.

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

10.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

11.

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

Cicero, Marcus T.

12.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

13.

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

Voltaire

14.

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

Dunne, Finley Peter

15.

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

16.

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

South, Bishop Robert

17.

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

18.

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

Speakes, Larry

19.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

20.

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

Cocteau, Jean

21.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

22.

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

Soderbergh, Steven

23.

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

24.

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

Greene, Graham

25.

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

Zohar

26.

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

27.

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

Armstrong, Robert

28.

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

Byron, Lord

29.

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

Greene, Graham

30.

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

Proust, Marcel

31.

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

Szilard, Leo

32.

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

33.

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

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

Steiner, George

37.

The lie is a condition of life.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

38.

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

Mcilvanney, William

39.

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

Syrus, Publilius

40.

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.

41.

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

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

42.

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

Watt, James

43.

Great talker, great liar.

Proverb, French

44.

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

Feather, William

45.

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

Phaedrus

46.

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.

47.

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

Twain, Mark

48.

Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.

Evans

49.

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Hoffer, Eric

50.

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.