Michel de Montaigne

“ There is not a man living whom it would so little become to speak from
memory as myself, for I have scarcely any at all, and do not think that
the world has another so marvellously treacherous as mine. ”

“ To which may be added, that they must of
necessity very often ridiculously trap themselves; for what memory can be
sufficient to retain so many different shapes as they have forged upon
one and the same subject? I have known many in my time very ambitious of
the repute of this fine wit; but they do not see that if they have the
reputation of it, the effect can no longer be.
In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have
other tie upon one another, but by our word. ”

“ It is not without good reason said "that he who has not a good memory
should never take upon him the trade of lying." I know very well that
the grammarians-- [Nigidius, Aulus Gellius, xi. ii; Nonius, v. 80.] --
distinguish betwixt an untruth and a lie, and say that to tell an untruth
is to tell a thing that is false, but that we ourselves believe to be
true; and that the definition of the word to lie in Latin, from which our
French is taken, is to tell a thing which we know in our conscience to be
untrue ”