Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

- Syrus, Publilius

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

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

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

Mencken, H. L.

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

Steiner, George

No man lies so boldly as the man who is indignant.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

Syrus, Publilius

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

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

10.

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

Watt, James

11.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

12.

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

Twain, Mark

13.

Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.

Evans

14.

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

Merlin

15.

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Hoffer, Eric

16.

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

Kant, Immanuel

17.

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

Belloc, Hilaire

18.

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

19.

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

Zohar

20.

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.

21.

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

Talmud, The

22.

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

Proust, Marcel

23.

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

24.

Liars are always ready to take oaths.

Alfieri, Vittorio, Conte Di

25.

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

Twain, Mark

26.

Great talker, great liar.

Proverb, French

27.

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

28.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

29.

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

Simon, Paul

30.

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

31.

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.

32.

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

Speakes, Larry

33.

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

34.

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

Soderbergh, Steven

35.

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

Aristotle

36.

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

37.

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

Thirkell, Angela

38.

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

Greene, Graham

39.

The lie is a condition of life.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

40.

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

Feather, William

41.

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

Thatcher, Margaret

42.

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

Homer

43.

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.

44.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

45.

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

Proust, Marcel

46.

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''

47.

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

South, Bishop Robert

48.

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.

49.

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

Epictetus

50.

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