49 Lies Quote Insights

In a world where truth often feels like a scarce commodity, lies have a way of weaving themselves into our daily narratives, affecting our perceptions, relationships, and even our personal growth. From little white lies to grand deceptions, the nature of falsehoods has long intrigued thinkers, philosophers, and everyday people alike. This blog post delves into a carefully selected compilation of 49 insightful quotes about lies. Each quote offers a unique perspective, encouraging reflection, discourse, and perhaps, a deeper understanding of the complex dance between truth and deceit. Join us as we explore the wisdom and wit of voices, past and present, shedding light on the shadows of deceit.

1. “We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves.” - Eric Hoffer

2. “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

3. “I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.” - Al Pacino

4. “All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE."Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES."So we can believe the big ones?"YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING."They're not the same at all!"YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED."Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"MY POINT EXACTLY.” - Terry Pratchett

5. “A lie, sometimes, can be truer than the truth, which is why fiction gets written.” - Tim O'Brien

6. “Truth is a naked and open daylight, that does not show the masques, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. . . A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure” - Francis Bacon

7. “If God had not permitted the people of Jerusalem to be torn asunder and driven them from the land, but had let them keep it after before, no one could convince them that they are not God`s chosen people.” - Martin Luther

8. “A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.” - Terry Pratchett

9. “Many truths which are not believed are called lies,' the Laughing Beast said. 'Mirrors do not themselves lie unless they have been enchanted. Ordinary mirrors merely reflect what is revealed to them. People lie and mirrors reflect people. If your mother feared mirrors in your land, she feared herself.” - Isobelle Carmody

10. “It is an occupational hazard that anyone who has spent her life learning how to lie eventually becomes bad at telling the truth.” - Ally Carter

11. “I'm planning, you see, to try to confine myself to the truth. That's hard for an old, inveterate fantasy martyr and liar who has never hesitated to give truth the form he felt the occasion demanded. ” - Ingmar Bergman

12. “It is as if Little Red Riding Hood had asked the wolf: "Dear Grandmother, what is the truth for?" And the wolf had replied: "The truth helps me tell you better lies.” - Sara Castro-Klarén

13. “Die meisten Lügen sind wahr und spinnen sich von ganz allein, kaum jemand kannte diese Wahrheit besser als Colin Darcy. Wenn man erst einmal der Melodie der Worte zu lauschen beginnt, dann pfeift man sie bald selbst. Und wenn Lügen wie kunstvolle Lieder sind, dann gehörte Helen Darcy, Colins Mutter, zu jenem seltenen Menschenschlag, der allzeit eine beschwingte Melodie auf den Lippen trägt.” - Christoph Marzi

14. “In the library I felt better, words you could trust and look at till you understood them, they couldn't change half way through a sentence like people, so it was easier to spot a lie.” - Jeanette Winterson

15. “But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them. It can't last.” - Ray Bradbury

16. “When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts.” - Michael Ende

17. “He lies to himself. If Eugenides talked in his sleep, he'd lie then, too.” - Megan Whalen Turner

18. “The only ethical principle which has made science possible is that the truth shall be told all the time. If we do not penalize false statements made in error, we open up the way for false statements by intention. And a false statement of fact, made deliberately, is the most serious crime a scientist can commit.” - Dorothy L. Sayers

19. “He lied all the time even when there was no need to lie [...] He needed a _history_, a sense of self. [Burnside on his father, p. 22]” - John Burnside

20. “Analogies are like lies.” - Roman Payne

21. “The worst lies in life are the ones we tell ourselves.” - Brad Meltzer

22. “I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.” - Barack Obama

23. “And when all was said and done the lies a fellow told about himself couldn't probably hold a proverbial candle to the wholesale whoppers other fellows coined about him.” - James Joyce

24. “The beauty and gift of truth, is that it is not dependent upon your belief in order to remain true” - A. Dragonblood

25. “In the end, there's only one thing you can believe. Bodies are honest; they don't lie.” - Megan Chance

26. “Truth is a risky proposition. It's the nature of mediocre human beings to believe that lies are necessary, that they serve a purpose, that truth is subversive, that candor is dangerous, that the very scaffold of communal life is supported by lies.” - Anne Rice

27. “Publicity is the life of this culture - in so far as without publicity capitalism could not survive - and at the same time publicity is its dream.” - John Berger

28. “Maximus was cleaning his blade on the dead man’s wolfskin. ‘You promised him his life,’ the Greek said. ‘No, I said death was his last worry.’ Maximus swung up on to Pale Horse. ‘Is that not so for all of us?” - Harry Sidebottom

29. “All we shared was a mattress, and a lie, and an addressBaby I don't need you, well baby I don't need youOnce occupied by a goddess, now it's a room full of boxesShe said, "it's time to leave you" but baby I don't need you! In a perfect world... her face would not existIn a perfect world... a broken heart is fixed” - Billy Talent

30. “It was amazing how it worked: the tiniest bit of truth made credible the greatest lies.” - Jeffrey Eugenides

31. “Isn't it funny how we live inside the lies we believe?” - A.S. King

32. “What man ever openly apologizes for slander? It is not so much a feeling of slander as it is that of a massive lie, a misdeed not only to the slandered but also to those manipulated in the process. He has made them all, every one, his enemies, thereupon he is so overwhelmed with guilt that he will deny it until his grave.” - Criss Jami

33. “Because even if the lie is beautiful, the truth is what you face in the end.” - Lauren DeStefano

34. “For about four years, I’ve been telling people I hate sour cream. One time I sent back nachos because they had sour cream on them. I started saying this because a friend I admire hates sour cream. I told him I hated it too so we could have a funny thing in common.” - Megan Boyle

35. “There must be repressed truth even in lies.” - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz

36. “Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.” - Sharon Salzberg

37. “One doesn't intentionally to alter the truth, just enhance it and make it more memorable.” - John Alexander

38. “Sneaking was a kind of deceit. So was disguise. Just past midnight, wearing dark trousers and Fox's hood, the queen snuck out of her own rooms and stepped into a world of stories and lies.” - Kristin Cashore

39. “I know that sometimes a lie is used in kindness. I don't believe it ever works kindly. The quick pain of the truth can pass away, but the slow, eating agonyof a lie is neverlost. That's a running sore” - John Steinbeck

40. “Two lusts breed in the soul of man: the lust for aggresion, and the lust for telling lies. If one will not allow himself to wrong others, he will wrong himself. If he doesn't come across anyone to lie to, he will lie to himself in his own thoughts.” - Ryszard Kapuściński

41. “When to people tell the same lie...""They are working together," Will finished” - Cassandra Clare

42. “Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.” - Khaled Hosseini

43. “Ask a burning question, get a burning answer” - Lynda Barry

44. “It's the rule of the wilds. You must be bigger, and stronger, and tougher. A coldness radiates through me, a solid wall that is growing, piece by piece, in my chest. He doesn't love me.He never loved me.It was all a lie."The old Lena is dead." I say, and then push past him. Each step is more difficult than the last; the heaviness fills me and turns my limbs to stone.You must hurt or be hurt.” - Lauren Oliver

45. “Insanity is everyone expecting you not to fall apart when you find out everything you believed in was a lie.” - Shannon L. Alder

46. “I look at the human sciences as poetic sciences in which there is no objectivity, and I see film as not being objective, and cinema verite as a cinema of lies that depends on the art of telling yourself lies. If you’re a good storyteller then the lie is more true than reality, and if you’re a bad one, the truth is worse than a half lie.” - Jean Rouch

47. “If you cannot lie, tell a different truth.” - thea_zara

48. “I should never make anything of a fisherman. I had not got sufficient imagination” - Jerome K. Jerome

49. “There's an intimacy in listening to somebody's lies, I've always thought--you learn more about someone from the things they wish were true than from the things that actually are.” - Jennifer Dubois