Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

- Mencken, H. L.

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

Never to lie is to have no lock to your door, you are never wholly alone.

Bowen, Elizabeth

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

Phaedrus

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

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

Armstrong, Robert

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

Dunne, Finley Peter

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

Crowley, Aleister

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

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

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

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

10.

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

Zohar

11.

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

12.

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

Williams, Tennessee

13.

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

14.

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.

15.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

16.

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

17.

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

Epictetus

18.

Lying and stealing are next door neighbors.

Proverb, Arabian

19.

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

Twain, Mark

20.

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

Aristotle

21.

A liar is full of oaths.

Corneille, Pierre

22.

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

23.

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

Feather, William

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

27.

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

Thirkell, Angela

28.

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

29.

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.

30.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

31.

If you do not wish to be lied to, do not ask questions. If there were no questions, there would be no lies.

Traven, B.

32.

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

Antrim, Minna

33.

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

Byron, Lord

34.

The middle of the road is where the white line is -- and that's the worst place to drive.

Frost, Robert

35.

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

36.

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

Syrus, Publilius

37.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

Simon, Paul

41.

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''

42.

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

43.

Liars are always ready to take oaths.

Alfieri, Vittorio, Conte Di

44.

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

Homer

45.

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

46.

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

South, Bishop Robert

47.

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

Szilard, Leo

48.

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

Haig, Alexander

49.

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

Steiner, George

50.

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