Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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.

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

Feather, William

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

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

Zohar

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.

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

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

A liar is full of oaths.

Corneille, Pierre

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

Syrus, Publilius

10.

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

Szilard, Leo

11.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

12.

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

Aristotle

13.

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.

14.

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.

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

Talmud, The

18.

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

Cocteau, Jean

19.

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

Voltaire

20.

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

21.

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

Steiner, George

22.

The lie is a condition of life.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

23.

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

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

24.

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

Mencken, H. L.

25.

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

26.

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

Merlin

27.

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

Twain, Mark

28.

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

Homer

29.

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

South, Bishop Robert

30.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

Cicero, Marcus T.

34.

Great talker, great liar.

Proverb, French

35.

The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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.

If you want to be thought a liar, always tell the truth.

Smith, Logan Pearsall

38.

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

Proust, Marcel

39.

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

Simon, Paul

40.

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.

41.

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

Greene, Graham

42.

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

Belloc, Hilaire

43.

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

France, Anatole

44.

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

Proverb, Russian