Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

- Twain, Mark

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

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

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

South, Bishop Robert

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

France, Anatole

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

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.

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

The lie is a condition of life.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

Aristotle

10.

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

11.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

12.

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

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.

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

15.

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

Thatcher, Margaret

16.

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

17.

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

Greene, Graham

18.

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.

19.

Great talker, great liar.

Proverb, French

20.

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

Twain, Mark

21.

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

22.

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

Williams, Tennessee

23.

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

Phaedrus

24.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

25.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

26.

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

Merlin

27.

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

28.

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

Haig, Alexander

29.

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

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

30.

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

31.

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

Armstrong, Robert

32.

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''

33.

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

Frost, Robert

34.

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

Mencken, H. L.

35.

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

36.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

37.

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

Feather, William

38.

Someone who always has to lie discovers that every one of his lies is true.

Canetti, Elias

39.

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

40.

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

Antrim, Minna

41.

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.

42.

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

Soderbergh, Steven

43.

A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.

Twain, Mark

44.

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

Simon, Paul

45.

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

Dunne, Finley Peter

46.

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

Epictetus

47.

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

48.

Liars need to have good memories.

Sidney, Algernon

49.

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.

50.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor