A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty.
—Tacitus (56–117) Roman Orator, Historian
Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.
—Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) German Chancellor, Prime Minister
Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.
—Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) British Head of State, Military Leader
Falsehood is invariably the child of fear in one form or another.
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) English Occultist, Mystic, Magician
None are so hopelessly enslaved, as those who falsely believe they are free. The truth has been kept from the depth of their minds by masters who rule them with lies. They feed them on falsehoods till wrong looks like right in their eyes.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Liars are always ready to take oaths.
—Vittorio Alfieri (1749–1803) Italian Poet, Dramatist
Good lies need a leavening of truth to make them palatable.
—William McIlvanney (1936–2015) Scottish Novelist, Short Story Writer, Poet
In human relationships, kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
He entered the territory of lies without a passport for return.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Never chase a lie. Let it alone, and it will run itself to death. I can work out a good character much faster than any one can lie me out of it.
—Lyman Beecher (1775–1863) American Presbyterian Clergyman
You don’t tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.
—Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British Head of State
One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
If you want to be thought a liar, always tell the truth.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
The art of pleasing is the art of deception.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
I went to Washington to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations.
—George W. Bush (b.1946) American Head of State, Businessperson
All this was inspired by the principle–which is quite true in itself–that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use falsehood for the basest purposes.
—Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Nazi Leader, Chancellor of Germany
This is the punishment of the liar, that when he tells the truth nobody believes him.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.
—Unknown
Every cloud has a silver lining.
—Common Proverb
Whatever deceives men seems to produce a magical enchantment.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
I detest that man, who hides one thing in the depths of his heart, and speaks forth another.
—Homer (751–651 BCE) Ancient Greek Poet
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.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
If one is to be called a liar, one may as well make an effort to deserve the name.
—A. A. Milne (1882–1956) British Humorist, Playwright, Children’s Writer
The difference between a saint and a hypocrite is that one lies for his religion, the other by it.
—Minna Antrim (1861–1950) American Writer, Epigrammist
A liar is full of oaths.
—Pierre Corneille (1606–84) French Poet, Dramatist
No one who has read official documents needs to be told how easy it is to conceal the essential truth under the apparently candid and all-disclosing phrases of a voluminous and particularizing report….
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State