Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

- Kant, Immanuel

Best Quotes about Lies and lying

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

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

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

Twain, Mark

Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.

Evans

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

Crowley, Aleister

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

Lying and stealing are next door neighbors.

Proverb, Arabian

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

10.

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

11.

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

Canetti, Elias

12.

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.

13.

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Hoffer, Eric

14.

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

France, Anatole

15.

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

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

16.

The lie is a condition of life.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

17.

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

Cocteau, Jean

18.

Liars need to have good memories.

Sidney, Algernon

19.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

20.

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

Epictetus

21.

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

22.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

23.

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

24.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

25.

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.

26.

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

Twain, Mark

27.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

28.

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

Phaedrus

29.

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

30.

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.

31.

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

32.

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

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

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.

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

35.

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

Twain, Mark

36.

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

Byron, Lord

37.

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

Proust, Marcel

38.

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

Merlin

39.

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

40.

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

41.

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

Watt, James

42.

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

Armstrong, Robert

43.

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

44.

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

45.

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

46.

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

47.

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

Thirkell, Angela

48.

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

Voltaire

49.

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

Mencken, H. L.

50.

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