Quotes on Lying and Truth
Opinionated quotations from the famous and not-so-famous

One way of discrediting an idea is flooding the public with wild speculation and disinformation and obvious cranks.

From the 2012 page of the Cassiopedia Glossary

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

Mark Twain

Trust, but verify.

Ronald Reagan

No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.

Abraham Lincoln

Those who think it is permissible to tell white lies soon grow color-blind.

Austin O'Malley

There are times that when truth and kindness conflict one ought to chose kindness, especially when a little honesty is better than a lot.

Leroy Jack Syrop

When you don't tell people what you really think, you are not being kind. People cannot change and grow if all they get are insincere niceties.

Duane Alan Hahn

In human relationships, kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths.

Graham Greene

Friends require too much care and feeding. A large part of their diet is made up of lies and I'm fresh out.

Duane Alan Hahn

Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.

Fyodor Dostoevski

People always think they know what truth is, like it was toilet paper and they've got a supply of it in their closet

But what you learn as you get older is that there is no truth, There's only bullsh*t. Layers of it. One layer of bullsh*t on top of another.

And what you do in life is pick the layer of bullsh*t you prefer, and that's your bullsh*t.

'Bernie LaPlante' from the movie Hero (adapted)

Original Quote at the IMDb

Once the trust goes out of a relationship, it's really no fun lying to them anymore.

'Norm' from Cheers TV series

The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Duration is not a test of truth or falsehood.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

A positive message devoid of truth is flavorless pap and only desired by babies.

Duane Alan Hahn

They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth.

Plato

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.

Mal Pancoast

Tact is just not saying true stuff.

'Cordelia' from Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series

Don't try to butter me up. Insincere butter is rancid from the start.

Duane Alan Hahn

He who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave.

Bishop Berkeley

If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.

Hitler

Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

I wonder how many times a flood of lies have been used to discredit one truth?

Duane Alan Hahn

Tell the truth and then run.

Proverb

Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.

John Sargent

People say they love truth, but in reality they want to believe that which they love is true.

Robert J. Ringer

Say not, ''I have found the truth,'' but rather, ''I have found a truth."

Kahlil Gibran

When truth is discovered by someone else, it loses something of its attractiveness.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected.

Mahatma Gandhi

Receiving a new truth is like adding a new sense.

Liebig

When I tell any truth it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those who do.

William Blake

We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.

Denis Diderot

Only enemies speak the truth. Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.

Stephen King

Pretty much all the honest truth telling there is in the world is done by children.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Adults find pleasure in deceiving a child. They consider it necessary, but they also enjoy it. The children very quickly figure it out and then practice deception themselves.

Elias Canetti

There is a great deal of hard lying in the world; especially among people whose characters are above suspicion.

Benjamin Jowett

I've seen honest faces before. They usually come attached to liars.

'Willow' from Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series

Liar's motto: If at first you don't deceive, lie, lie again.

Duane Alan Hahn

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