Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

- Homer

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

Kant, Immanuel

Liars are always ready to take oaths.

Alfieri, Vittorio, Conte Di

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Szilard, Leo

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

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

Aristotle

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

Twain, Mark

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

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

Cicero, Marcus T.

10.

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

11.

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.

12.

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

13.

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

Feather, William

14.

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

Bowen, Elizabeth

15.

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

Mcilvanney, William

16.

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

Byron, Lord

17.

Liars need to have good memories.

Sidney, Algernon

18.

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

Twain, Mark

19.

A liar is full of oaths.

Corneille, Pierre

20.

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''

21.

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.

22.

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

Greene, Graham

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.

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

25.

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

Twain, Mark

26.

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

27.

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

Syrus, Publilius

28.

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

Steiner, George

29.

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.

30.

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

Crowley, Aleister

31.

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

32.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

33.

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

Twain, Mark

34.

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

35.

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

Speakes, Larry

36.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

37.

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

38.

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

Homer

39.

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

Canetti, Elias

40.

Lying and stealing are next door neighbors.

Proverb, Arabian

41.

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.

42.

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Hoffer, Eric

43.

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

Simon, Paul

44.

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

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

45.

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

Greene, Graham

46.

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

47.

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

Cocteau, Jean

48.

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

Armstrong, Robert

49.

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

Epictetus

50.

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