Motivational Quotes

Lies and lying

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

- Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

Best Quotes about 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

Liars are always ready to take oaths.

Alfieri, Vittorio, Conte Di

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

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

Byron, Lord

Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.

Soderbergh, Steven

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

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.

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

Thatcher, Margaret

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

10.

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

Epictetus

11.

Pain forces even the innocent to lie.

Syrus, Publilius

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.

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

Proust, Marcel

14.

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

Thirkell, Angela

15.

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

Frost, Robert

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

South, Bishop Robert

19.

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

20.

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

21.

Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

France, Anatole

22.

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.

23.

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

Twain, Mark

24.

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

Dostoevsky, Fyodor

25.

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

26.

A liar is full of oaths.

Corneille, Pierre

27.

Lying and stealing are next door neighbors.

Proverb, Arabian

28.

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

Szilard, Leo

29.

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

30.

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

Speakes, Larry

31.

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

Proust, Marcel

32.

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.

33.

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

Canetti, Elias

34.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

35.

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

Voltaire

36.

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

Phaedrus

37.

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

Zohar

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

41.

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

Feather, William

42.

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

43.

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

Crowley, Aleister

44.

Liars need to have good memories.

Sidney, Algernon

45.

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

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

46.

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

Haig, Alexander

47.

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.

48.

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich

49.

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

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

50.

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