The great advantages of simulation and dissimulation are three. First to lay asleep opposition and to surprise. For where a man’s intentions are published, it is an alarum to call up all that are against them. The second is to reserve a man’s self a fair retreat: for if a man engage himself, by a manifest declaration, he must go through, or take a fall. The third is, the better to discover the mind of another. For to him that opens himself, men will hardly show themselves adverse; but will fair let him go on, and turn their freedom of speech to freedom of thought.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
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
Each day a few more lies eat into the seed with which we are born, little institutional lies from the print of newspapers, the shock waves of television, and the sentimental cheats of the movie screen.
—Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American Novelist Essayist
Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering the weaknesses of others.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Lying rides upon debt’s back.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
I do myself a greater injury in lying that I do him of whom I tell a lie.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
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 (1903–87) American Playwright, Diplomat, Journalist, Diplomat, Elected Rep
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
Good lies need a leavening of truth to make them palatable.
—William McIlvanney (1936–2015) Scottish Novelist, Short Story Writer, Poet
Words that are saturated with lies or atrocity, do not easily resume life.
—George Steiner (1929–2020) American Critic, Scholar
A lie can run around the world six times while the truth is still trying to put on its pants.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
This is the punishment of the liar, that when he tells the truth nobody believes him.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Clever liars give details, but the cleverest don’t.
—Unknown
A liar is full of oaths.
—Pierre Corneille (1606–84) French Poet, Dramatist
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The art of using deceit and cunning grow continually weaker and less effective to the user.
—John Tillotson
Truth will lose its credit, if delivered by a person that has none.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
Men are able to trust one another, knowing the exact degree of dishonesty they are entitled to expect.
—Stephen Leacock (1869–1944) Canadian Political Scientist, Humorist
When lying, be emphatic and indignant, thus behaving like your children.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
Life is the art of being well deceived.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
For nothing can seem foul to those that win.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
One may sometimes tell a lie, but the grimace that accompanies it tells the truth.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
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 (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Grow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth. Do not follow those who lie in contempt of reality. Let your lie be even more logical than the truth itself, so the weary travelers may find repose.
—Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish-American Poet, Novelist, Polemicist
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 (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
He who has made it a practice to lie and deceive his father, will be the most daring in deceiving others.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
We like to be deceived.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Whoever is detected in a shameful fraud is ever after not believed even if they speak the truth.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
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
I am a lie who always speaks the truth.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
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
The craftiest trickery are too short and ragged a cloak to cover a bad heart.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Lying and stealing are next door neighbors.
—Arabic Proverb
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
—Unknown
In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our word.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
There wasn’t any more truth in over half of what any so-called orator said. If it wasn’t a Deliberate Lie, why it was an Exaggerated Falsehood.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
All deception in the course of life is indeed nothing else but a lie reduced to practice, and falsehood passing from words into things.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
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
If all mankind were suddenly to practice honesty, many thousands of people would be sure to starve.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
It seems to me that there are two kinds of trickery: the “fronts” people assume before one another’s eyes, and the “front” a writer puts on the face of reality.
—Francoise Sagan (1935–2004) French Novelist, Playwright, Short-Story Writer
Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree. We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist