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lie quotes

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“I do myself a greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I tell a lie.” Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Michel de Montaigne
“The lie made into the rule of the world.” Franz Kafka, The Trial
“To lie a little is not possible: he who lies, lies the whole lie.” Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
“A lie by day, a lie by night, a lie in every touch and every look; a lie in every caress and every quarrel; a lie in every word and in every silence.” Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
“on the surface, an intelligible lie; underneath, the unintelligible truth showing through.” Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the slow, eating agony of a lie is never lost.” John Steinbeck, East of Eden
“He who cannot lie, doth not know what truth is.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“dreamers often lie.” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
“One drinks up a flattering lie in great gulps, whereas a bitter truth one sips drop by drop” Denis Diderot, Rameau's Nephew
“Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
“he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.” Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Michel de Montaigne
“And Credulity, because men love to be hearkened unto in company, disposeth them to lying: so that Ignorance it selfe without Malice, is able to make a man bothe to believe lyes, and tell them; and sometimes also to invent them.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“the best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way” Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh
“Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies.” Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
“One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.” Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson
“I think the difference between a lie and a story is that a story utilizes the trappings and appearance of truth for the interest of the listener as well as of the teller. A story has in it neither gain nor loss. But a lie is a device for profit...” John Steinbeck, East of Eden
“It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie.” Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
“The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre; let us leave this commission to men who are more obedient and more supple.” Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Michel de Montaigne
“In short, the way to avoid misunderstanding is for everybody to lie and slander and insinuate and pretend as hard as they can. That is what obeying your mother comes to.” George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
“Folk songs are evasive — the truth about life, and life is more or less a lie, but then again that’s exactly the way we want it to be.” Bob Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One
“What I've learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one's reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one's master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person's view...” Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
“We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.” Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler
“When people tell a lie about something, they have to make up a bunch of lies to go with the first one. 'Mythomania' is the word for it.” Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
“When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.” George R. R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
“Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar.” C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.” Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
“The man who lies to the world, is the world's slave from then on” Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
“When a man really tells the truth, the first truth he tells is that he himself is a liar.” G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World
“Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either.” Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
“So, that's what they wanted: lies. Beautiful lies. That's what they needed. People were fools. It was going to be easy for me.” Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye
“My dear fellow, the truth isn't quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl.” Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
“I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose.” Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
“I wanted all things To seem to make some sense, So we all could be happy, yes, Instead of tense. And I made up lies So that they all fit nice, And I made this sad world A par-a-dise.” Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
“when you find that people are not telling you the truth—look out!” Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles
“Half-truths are worth more than outright lies.” George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
“One of the great conditions of anger and hatred is, that you must tell and believe lies against the hated object, in order, as we said, to be consistent.” William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
“Patriotism, on the other hand, is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.” Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays
“when grown-ups told you something wouldn’t hurt it almost always did.” Neil Gaiman, Coraline

Related topics

truth lying life world honesty knowledge fear story women books pain religion writing children ignorance memory fate foolishness silence sadness

Related authors

Oscar Wilde (3)
Michel de Montaigne (3)
John Steinbeck (2)
George R. R. Martin (2)
Ayn Rand (2)
Samuel Butler (2)
Kurt Vonnegut (2)
William Shakespeare (1)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1)
Paulo Coelho (1)
C. S. Lewis (1)
Mark Twain (1)
Haruki Murakami (1)
Victor Hugo (1)
Charles Dickens (1)
G. K. Chesterton (1)
Emma Goldman (1)
Neil Gaiman (1)
Milan Kundera (1)
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1)

Related sources

The Importance of Being Earnest (3)
The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (3)
East of Eden (2)
Atlas Shrugged (2)
Cat's Cradle (2)
Leviathan (1)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1)
Romeo and Juliet (1)
The Alchemist (1)
Norwegian Wood (1)
The Trial (1)
Ham on Rye (1)
A Storm of Swords (1)
Vanity Fair (1)
Great Expectations (1)
Man and Superman (1)
The Age of Innocence (1)
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1)
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1)