Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

- France, Anatole

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

Cicero, Marcus T.

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

Proust, Marcel

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

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

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

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

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

Simon, Paul

A liar is full of oaths.

Corneille, Pierre

That's not a lie, it's a terminological inexactitude. Also, a tactical misrepresentation.

Haig, Alexander

10.

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

South, Bishop Robert

11.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

12.

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Hoffer, Eric

13.

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

Byron, Lord

14.

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

15.

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

16.

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

Soderbergh, Steven

17.

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

Proust, Marcel

18.

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

19.

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

20.

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

Greene, Graham

21.

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.

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

27.

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

28.

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

Homer

29.

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

Epictetus

30.

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

Twain, Mark

31.

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

32.

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.

33.

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.

34.

Great talker, great liar.

Proverb, French

35.

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

Speakes, Larry

36.

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

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.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

39.

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

France, Anatole

40.

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

41.

Burning lies led to my silent cries Keeping it inside I've got everything to hide. lustful desire, a burning fire You are the flame, You are to blame. Beautiful light deliver me from fright dreams full of lust. Or is the dream dreaming us? PHYSICAL PAIN don't call me insane. I don't want to be dead but all beautiful colors bleed to red

42.

Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.

Evans

43.

The cruelest lies are often told in silence. A man may have sat in a room for hours and not opened his mouth, and yet come out of that room a disloyal friend or a vile calumniator.

Stevenson, Robert Louis

44.

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

Dunne, Finley Peter

45.

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

Mcilvanney, William

46.

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

Aristotle

47.

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