LIES AND LYING

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

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

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

Lying rides upon debt's back.
Benjamin Franklin

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.
Oscar Wilde

Liars are always ready to take oaths.
Vittorio Alfieri

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

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.
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

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.
H. L. Mencken

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

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.
Clare Boothe Luce

Lying and stealing are next door neighbors.
Arabian Proverbs

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

If one is to be called a liar, one may as well make an effort to deserve the name.
A. A. Milne

He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying.
Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

This is the punishment of a liar: he is not believed, even when he speaks the truth.
The Talmud

The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
George Bernard Shaw

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.
Billy Boy Franklin

If you tell a lie, always rehearse it. If it don't sound good to you, it won't sound good to anybody.
Leroy ''Satchel'' Paige

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

Lies are usually caused by undue fear of men.
Hasidic Saying

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

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

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
Lyman Beecher

A lie can run around the world before the truth can get it's boots on.
James Watt

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?
Quentin Crisp

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

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.
C. E. Montague

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

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

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
Source Unknown

Clever liars give details, but the cleverest don't.
Source Unknown

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

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

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.
Thomas Jefferson

In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our word.
Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

With lies you may go ahead in the world, but you can never go back.
Russian Proverbs

Great talker, great liar.
French Proverbs

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

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

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

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

If you do not wish to be lied to, do not ask questions. If there were no questions, there would be no lies.
B. Traven

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.
Oscar Wilde

Never forget that a half truth is a whole lie.
Source Unknown

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

Please don't lie to me, unless you're absolutely sure I'll never find out the truth.
ª Ashleigh Brilliant

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