Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

Merlin

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

Twain, Mark

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

Simon, Paul

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

Twain, Mark

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

Greene, Graham

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

Thatcher, Margaret

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

Twain, Mark

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

Smith, Logan Pearsall

10.

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

11.

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

South, Bishop Robert

12.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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.

It is easier to gather up a bag of loose feathers than to round up or head off a single lie.

15.

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

16.

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

Thirkell, Angela

17.

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

Szilard, Leo

18.

They say is often a great liar.

Proverb

19.

By a lie, a man...annihilates his dignity as a man.

Kant, Immanuel

20.

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

Williams, Tennessee

21.

Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.

Evans

22.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

23.

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

24.

A lie can run around the world before the truth can get its boots on.

Watt, James

25.

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

26.

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

27.

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

Greene, Graham

28.

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

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

29.

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.

30.

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

Feather, William

31.

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

32.

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

Voltaire

33.

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

Proust, Marcel

34.

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

Twain, Mark

35.

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

36.

A liar is full of oaths.

Corneille, Pierre

37.

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

Haig, Alexander

38.

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

Cocteau, Jean

39.

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

Soderbergh, Steven

40.

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

Antrim, Minna

41.

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

42.

Lying and stealing are next door neighbors.

Proverb, Arabian

43.

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.

44.

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.

45.

Liars are always ready to take oaths.

Alfieri, Vittorio, Conte Di

46.

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.

47.

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

Canetti, Elias

48.

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

Mcilvanney, William

49.

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.

50.

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