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

23.

Liars are always ready to take oaths.

Alfieri, Vittorio, Conte Di

24.

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

Twain, Mark

25.

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

26.

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

27.

A liar is full of oaths.

Corneille, Pierre

28.

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

Feather, William

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.

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.

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

Crowley, Aleister

32.

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

33.

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

Simon, Paul

34.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

35.

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

Williams, Tennessee

36.

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

37.

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

Greene, Graham

38.

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

39.

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.

40.

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

Soderbergh, Steven

41.

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.

42.

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.

43.

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

Antrim, Minna

44.

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

Homer

45.

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

Speakes, Larry

46.

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

Aristotle

47.

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

48.

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

49.

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

Phaedrus

50.

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

Cicero, Marcus T.