Lias

“ Fashionable lies, white lies, lies of convenience; or by whatever other name they are called, are in God's word all classed under one head, against which this fearful penalty is pronounced: 'All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.' Among the seven crimes which God specifies as things which he hates, he classes the lying tongue and repeatedly avers, 'he that speaketh lies shall not escape.'
"You will see, at once, that a child or man who is known to speak falsely is never believed. ”

“ I wish I may see him lie with those red lips white and dry as ashes, and when he looks for pity I wish he may see my face rejoicing in his pain. It is all a lie—this world is a lie—there is no goodness but in hate. ”

“ I dare say she would call me a liar for sending word 'not at home' to a caller whom I wish to avoid, as if it were not everywhere understood that it means you are engaged; or because I reply that 'my tablet is full of engagements,' when a disagreeable gentleman wishes to dance with me. If she knew anything of fashionable society, she would understand that such white lies are unavoidable. It would be an insult to a gentleman to refuse to dance with him."
"Oh, how I wish I could go to a ball!" exclaimed one enthusiastic young lady. ”

“ But I am of opinion that upon an urgent necessity, or a great advantage, such a sort of a lie rather is no fault, or a very small one; unless it be that having once opened the way, there is danger of our growing into a habit of lying injuriously. Put the case that by a harmless lie a man might save the bodies and souls of his whole country; which would a pious man choose? ”

“ Nor is false talking to be less avoided; for lying is the sheep's clothing hung upon the wolf's back: It is the Pharisee's prayer, the whore's buss, the hypocrite's paint, the murderer's smile, the thief's cloak; it is Joab's embrace, and Judah's kiss; in a word, it is mankind's darling sin, and the devil's distinguishing character. Some add lies to lies, till it not only comes to be improbable, but even impossible too: Others lie for gain to deceive, delude, and betray: And a third lies for sport, or for fun. There are other liars, who are personal and malicious ”

“ Liars thanked for lying, hypocrites taking pride in their hypocrisy. The many sold and butchered for the malice, the caprice, the vanity of the few. The plunderers of the poor plundered in their turn by worse devourers than themselves. ”

“ How is it that, though there may be a succession of lies, each lie wears itself out in a generation,—in much less than a generation? How is it that what seems for a while the weakest possible testimony against it waxes stronger and louder, till at last the world gives into it, and the lie and the liar are indignantly trampled underfoot? ”

“ If the exaggerator shrinks from this course his lie will not pass; it might have passed, and I venture a paradox, if it had been gigantic enough. The gigantic quality in lies needs definition; evidently the little 'white' lie is beyond count, while the lie with a view to a profit, the self-protective lie, the patriotic lie and the hysterical, vicious lie follow it into obscurity. One lie alone remains, the splendid, purposeless lie, born of the joy of life. That is the lie of braggadocio, a shouting, rich thing, the mischievous, arch thing beloved of Münchausen. ”

“ My friends, if I am a liar, the whole world is a liar, and yet any one of you who’ll go and proclaim that on the Braunfels will get his skull cracked. Every truth is not to be spoken, and every lie is not to be punished. ”

“ Pride and full sinnes have made the way a road.
Lie not; but let thy heart be true to God,
Thy mouth to it, thy actions to them both:
Cowards tell lies, and those that fear the rod;
The stormie working soul spits lies and froth.
Dare to be true. Nothing can need a ly:
A fault, which needs it most, grows two thereby. ”

“ We have at least three kinds of lying and species, or types, of liars--first, the common, ordinary, everyday liar, who lies without rime or reason, rule or compass, aim, intent or interest, in whose mind the partition between truth and falsehood has fallen down; then the sensational, imaginative liar, who has a tale to tell; and, finally, the mean, malicious liar, who would injure his neighbor.
This last is, indeed, but rare. Human nature is at its base amicable, because if nothing hinders it wants to please. All of us, however, are more or less its unconscious victims. ”

“ Strange that you should be guilty of it! Is one’s life a lie because one makes so bold as to keep one’s own counsel? Must one take the world into one’s confidence, or stand condemned as a liar? Oh, Hadria, this is childish! ”

“ Liar call not him who squares All his ends and aims with theirs; But from sacred truth to vary, Like the false depositary, Is to be, by every rule Both a liar and a fool. The story goes: A man of trade, In Persia, with his neighbour made Deposit, as he left the state, Of iron, say a hundredweight. Return'd, said he, 'My iron, neighbour.' 'Your iron! you have lost your labour; I grieve to say it,--'pon my soul, A rat has eaten up the whole. ”

“ You may imagine my surprise and displeasure when I found that I had one scholar who could thus be guilty of a lie of plagiarism, in attempting a composition on the sin of lying.
"I will not at present expose the young lady, whose punishment I have not yet decided upon. As for the rest of you, the consciousness that you have been guilty of no wrong in this respect will uphold you under the common blame which the sin of one of your number has caused you to bear. This crime is as truly a sin as any other lie. ”

“ Though I resolved not to forsake him, and my decision is final—every liar and traitor insults God and thus lies—the heart seeing not him weeps and sighs, moans and groans, it comes not near to any joy, it shudders, grows sullen, cries alack! ”

“ When I consider the lies, great and small, which for more than a year, throughout the entire world, have been printed about me, I am filled almost with hopelessness. And sometimes, when I think how I have been unjustly dubbed as the most colossal liar of history, I am filled with a sort of sardonic humor. ”

“ The rouge and powder on the lady's cheek—they are lies, both of them; the baronial and ducal crests are lies and the fools who use them are liars; the people who soak themselves in rum have nothing but lies in their heads; the multitude who live by their wits and the lack of them in others—they are all liars; the many who imagine a vain thing and pretend to be what they are not liars everyone of them. ”

“ Hester replied with a toss of her head.
“That will not do. Answer. Was it a lie, or wasn't it?”
The color stole into the cheeks of both women, and with a struggle and an effort they got out their confession:
“It was a lie.”
“Good—the reform is beginning; there is hope for you yet; you will not tell a lie to save your dearest friend's soul, but you will spew out one without a scruple to save yourself the discomfort of telling an unpleasant truth.” ”

“ I praised that Fair, that none enough could praise: But plaints, nor praises, could fair Licia move. Above my reach, she did her virtues raise. And thus replied, "False scrawl, untrue thou art! To feign those sighs that nowhere can be found. For half those praises came not from his heart; Whose faith and love, as yet, was never found. "Thy master's life, false scrawl, shall be thy doom! Because he burns, I judge thee to the flame! Both your attempts deserve no better room." Thus, at her word, we ashes both became. Believe me, Fair, and let my paper live! Or be not fair, and so me freedom give. ”

“ Then if a mother, who naturally endures the wrongs put upon her by her children and thinks she has great returns from them even if they render only a slight service, because she judges what happens rather by her natural mother-love than by any cold-blooded standard, (if she then) thought her son would rob her at death, what should be your judgment about him? 23. For what would a man do to those who were not connected with him if lie commits such offenses against his own relatives? ”

“ The theoretical is derived from lying among men being reputed as infamous, or as a vice nearly bordering upon infamy. Let us admit, for argument’s sake, the divisions the theologians make of a lie, into officious, jocose, and pernicious. Let us admit also, that a pernicious lie is reputed in the common opinion as it deserves to be reputed, and that it is treated with all possible abhorrence, so that those who are noted for telling lies to the prejudice of their neighbours, are generally considered as the pests of society ”

“ But I find myself in an emergency where a lie is a 'necessity,' and so I must avail myself of the help of 'the father of lies.' If I am carried through this crisis by his help, I shall be glad to resume my position in your service." The man whose whole moral nature recoils from this position, will not be led into it by the best arguments of Christian philosophers in favor of the "lie of necessity." ”

“ Mere knowledge of our public evils, economic and political, will henceforward spread; and though we must suffer the external consequences of so prolonged a regime of lying, the lies are now known to be lies. ”

“ When the apostle asked whether they had sold the land for so much, they said, 'Yes, for so much,' lying not only to him, but to God. Their instant death is an awful warning to those who depart from the truth, or speak lies, as the Bible terms it."
Ellen shuddered. "I have always told lies," she said, softly; "Alice does, and Joseph and Aunt Clarissa too." ”

“ In discussing treatment great emphasis should be placed upon the primary necessity for directly meeting the pathological liar upon the level of the moral failures and making it plain that these are known and understood. It is very certain that frequently this type of prevaricator has very little conception of the social antagonism which his habit arouses. There is faulty apperception of how others feel towards the lying, and to what depths the practice of this habit leads. Appreciation of these facts may be the first step towards betterment. ”

“ I don't pretend to be a George Washington, but what's the use of telling lies that sound like lies, even to one's self while one's telling them? Give me a genuine sale of twenty thousand, and I'll undertake, without committing myself, to convey an impression of forty. ”

“ Institutions or systems based upon any such expedients must necessarily prove false and hollow. "Though a lie be ever so well dressed," says George Herbert, "it is ever overcome." Downright lying, though bolder and more vicious, is even less contemptible than such kind of shuffling and equivocation. ”

“ I have frequently wonder'd to see Men of Probity, who would scorn to utter a Falshood for their own particular Advantage, give so readily into a Lie when it becomes the Voice of their Faction, notwithstanding they are thoroughly sensible of it as such. How is it possible for those who are Men of Honour in their Persons, thus to become notorious Liars in their Party? ”

“ Still I do not tell a lie."
"What is a lie, then, sir?"
"A lie is an intention to deceive. The words are spoken, or the motions made, for the purpose of deceiving. If, as Mary says, not a word is spoken, by a nod of assent, or a shake of the head, you may give and intend to give a false impression, and thus be guilty of lying."
"Do you remember, father," asked Mary, "how dreadfully Abby Jones's brother was whipped at school, because she nodded her head to assure the teacher that he took her dinner out of the pail?" ”

“ Lies which are told out of Arrogance and Ostentation a Man should detect in his own Defence, because he should not be triumphed over; Lies which are told out of Malice he should expose, both for his own sake and that of the rest of Mankind, because every Man should rise against a common Enemy: But the officious Liar many have argued is to be excused, because it does some Man good, and no Man hurt. ”

“ But I have been taught that gossip, whether inspired by malice or not, which is according to each one's natural tendency, begins in a lie and generally ends in truth. Does gossip, as it grows, disclose the hidden sin? ”

“ In a measure, they are owing—what good is in them—to the discovery of many lies, and the escape from the power of evil. Not to liberty, but to the deliverance from evil or cruel masters. Brave men have dared to examine lies which had long been taught, not because they were free-thinkers, but because they were such stern and close thinkers that the lie could no longer escape them. ”

“ It was then her famous Billy Vane first appeared in her lies.
Lying—whole-souled, brazen lying—has a strange, half-hypnotic effect on many hearers who are by nature truthful and kind-hearted, as quite a few human beings are. When a man looks me full in the eyes and lies to me, I have a feeling of shame. ”

“ Those that design to do ill support themselves by falsehood and lying: A wicked doer gives ear, with a great deal of pleasure, to false lips, that will justify him in the ill he does, to those that aim to make public disturbances, catch greedily at libels, and false stories, that defame the government and the administration. 2. Those that take the liberty to tell lies take a pleasure in hearing them told: A liar gives heed to a malicious backbiting tongue, that he may have something to graft his lies upon, and with which to give them some colour of truth and so to support them. ”