57 Quotes About Lying

Lying is a timeless facet of human interaction, woven through stories, histories, and personal experiences. Whether it's a small fib or a grand deception, the act of lying penetrates deep into interpersonal relationships and societal norms. This collection of 57 curated quotes offers insight into the complexities and consequences of deceit, capturing the wisdom and reflections of thinkers, writers, and philosophers across the ages. Through these words, we explore the multifaceted nature of lies, contemplating their role as both protectors and destroyers of truth. Join us on this journey through thought-provoking perspectives that illuminate the intricate dance of sincerity and subterfuge.

1. “The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.” - George Bernard Shaw

2. “Nothing is easier than self-deceit.For what every man wishes,that he also believes to be true.” - Demosthenes

3. “A lie cannot live.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

4. “It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.” - Thomas Paine

5. “If any era should be aware of the temptations to rewrite history, it is our own.” - Marjorie Garber

6. “But keeping secrets is a discipline. I never use to think of myself as a good liar, but after having had some practice I had adopted the prevaricator's credo that one doesn't so much fabricate a lie as marry it. A successful lie cannot be brought into this world and capriciously abandoned; like any committed relationship it must be maintained, and with far more devotion than the truth, which carries on being carelessly true without any help. By contrast, my lie needed me as much as I needed it, and so demanded the constancy of wedlock: Till death do us part.” - Lionel Shriver

7. “Ellie: "You could lie to me. You could tell me to be encouraged, that good will triumph over evil."Richard: "Good will triumph over evil."Ellie: "Liar.” - Joan Bauer

8. “Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty.” - Holly Black

9. “I'd rather hear an ugly truth, rather than an obscure lie.” - Ana Monnar

10. “There is a lie that acts like a virus within the mind of humanity. And that lie is, ‘There’s not enough good to go around. There’s lack and there’s limitation and there’s just not enough.’The truth is that there’s more than enough good to go around. There is more than enough creative ideas. There is more than enough power. There is more than enough love. There’s more than enough joy. All of this begins to come through a mind that is aware of its own infinite nature.There is enough for everyone. If you believe it, if you can see it, if you act from it, it will show up for you. That's the truth.” - Michael Beckwith

11. “I'm telling you a lie in a vicious effort that you will repeat my lie over and over until it becomes true” - Lady Gaga

12. “Bullshit takes no genius,even fool senses its' foul.” - Toba Beta

13. “If a man confessed anything on his death bed, it was the truth; for no man could stare death in the face and lie.” - richard wright

14. “That's the crazy thing about lies. You start to fall for them, yourself.” - Jodi Picoult

15. “One ought always to lie, when one can do good by it;” - Mark Twain

16. “Reality CheckHis lying is not contigent on who you are or what you do. His lying is not your fault. Lying is his choice and his problem, and if he makes that choice with you, he will make it with any other woman he’s with. That doesn’t mean you’re an angel and he’s the devil. It does mean that if he doesn’t like certain things about you, he has many ways to address them besides lying. If there are sexual problems between you, there are many resources available to help you. Nothing can change until you hold him responsible and accountable for lying and stop blaming yourself. The lies we tell ourselves to keep from seeing the truth about our lovers don’t feel like lies. They feel comfortable, familiar, and true. We repeat them like a mantra and cling to them like security blankets, hoping to calm ourselves and regain our sense that the world works the way we believe it ought to. Self-lies are false friends we look to for comfort and protection—and for a short time they may make us feel better. But we can only keep the truth at bay for so long. Our self-lies can’t erase his lies, and as we’ll see, the longer we try to pretend they can, the more we deepen the hurt.” - Susan Forward

17. “Human has the ability to believe in something wrong as if it is true.” - Toba Beta

18. “Never hide things from hardcore thinkers. They get more aggravated, more provoked by confusion than the most painful truths.” - Criss Jami

19. “Being a practiced liar doesn't mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; it's that which gives their lies such wide-eyed conviction.” - Philip Pullman

20. “If you've treated your girlfriend without respect, taken advantage of her, or cheated on her, your actions have taught her that she has no value. Needless to say, this is a serious, serious injury. If you don't try to make it right, she might start to believe the lie you've told her and spend the rest of her life thinking she deserves poor treatment.” - Josh Shipp

21. “And remember that within every lie, there is a truth hidden. Know the truth to defeat the lie.” - T. A. Miles

22. “Language always betrays us, tells the truth when we want to lie, and dissolves into formlessness when we would most like to be precise.” - Jeanette Winterson

23. “The lie, of course, is more interesting.” - John Irving

24. “I never lie," I said offhand. "At least not to those I don't love.” - Anne Rice

25. “It came as naturally to him as breathing or lying, or worse. His mama had only taught her son to be cautious at all times. Garnette was more than that. Much, much more than that.” - V.S. Carnes

26. “Socrates said the perfect society would be based on a great lie. People would be told that lie from the cradle, and they would believe it, because human beings need to make order out of chaos.” - Anne Frasier

27. “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

28. “Whoever tells a lie is not pure of heart, and such a person can not cook a clean soup.” - Ludwig van Beethoven

29. “The lie took form as she spoke, pulling on as many strands of truth as it could reach.” - Scott Westerfeld

30. “A lie, as you probably know, has a taste all its own. Blocky and bitter and never quite right, like when you pop a piece of fancy chocolate into your mouth expecting toffee filling and you get lemon zest instead.” - Jodi Picoult

31. “For people who say they hate being lied to, just start telling them nothing but the pure truth--about everything. That will teach them” - Seth Adam Brown

32. “We wait and think and doubt and hate. How does it make you feel? The overwhelming feeling is rage. We hate ourself for being unable to be other than what we are. Unable to be better. We feel rage. The feelings must be followed. It doesn't matter whether you're an ideologue or a sensualist, you follow the stimuli thinking that they're your signposts to the promised land. But they are nothing of the kind. What they are is rocks to navigate the past, each on your brush against, ripping you a little more open and they are always more on the horizon. But you can't face up to the that, so you force yourself to believe the bullshit of those you instinctively know are liars and you repeat those lies to yourself and to others, hoping that by repeating them often and fervently enough you'll attain the godlike status we accord those who tell the lies most frequently and most passionately. But you never do, and even if you could, you wouldn't value it, you'd realise that nobody believes in heroes any more. We know that they only want to sell us something we don't really want and keep from us what we really do need. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe we're getting in touch with our condition at last. It's horrible how we always die alone, but no worse than living alone.” - Irvine Welsh

33. “There's that horrible-beautiful moment, that bitter-sweet impasse where you know that somebody is bullshitting you but they're doing it with such panache and conviction...no, it's because they say exactly what you want to hear, at that point in time.” - Irvine Welsh

34. “If we are teaching children how to lie,to steal, and to be aggressive, why do schools punish those who lie and steal? and why does the society punish the offender criminal?” - Ali Altantawi

35. “মিথ্যা হলো শয়তানের বিয়ের মন্ত্র। মিথ্যা বললেই শয়তানের বিয়ে হয়। বিয়ে হওয়া মানেই সন্তান-সন্ততি হওয়া। একটা মিথ্যার পর আরো অনেকগুলি মিথ্যা বলতে হয় এই কারণেই।পরের মিথ্যাগুলি শয়তানের সন্তান।” - Humayun Ahmed

36. “So now they're shaking in their boots and looking for someone to give them the answer they want to hear. Not the truth, but some lie that will protect them from the truth” - Ralph Ellision

37. “Every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family. You must tell your relatives. You must tell your friends if indeed they are your friends. You must tell the people you work with. You must tell the people in the stores you shop in. Once they realize that we are indeed their children, that we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and all. And once you do, you will feel so much better” - Harvey Milk

38. “Half-truths are worth more than outright lies.” - George R.R. Martin

39. “The mirror will only lie, when you look at it through a mask.” - Anthony Liccione

40. “She tried to think of what to say to make it all better again, or at least the way it was before she'd made her confession, though she didn't regret having confessed. Perhaps that was what had been wrong with her all along. Now that the lie wasn't between them anymore, maybe she could love him again.” - Cheryl Strayed

41. “they may all be drunk at my place, but they're all honest, and though we do lie-because I lie, too-in the end we'll lie our way to the truth” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

42. “[the only acting advice he would give] What is acting but lying and what is good lying but convincing lying?” - Laurence Olivier

43. “I'm far from perfect- maybe beautifully flawed- but I don't lie” - Jayde Scott

44. “Of course I do, Jack! You have to beLIEve me!” - Raymond Benson

45. “If I told you, you might be forced to lie about it. Not that you aren't really good at it, but why put an old man in that position?” - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

46. “I had fallen in love with a perfect lie.” - R.K. Lilley

47. “The funny thing about a lie is that once it has been said and believed, it lives and becomes. It can't be taken back. It sucks all the air from you until you give up and it takes over and you forget how to breathe on your own. It is like those parasitic relationships, but not like the shark and the little remora that politely cleans the shark's skin and sometimes attaches itself to its underbelly. No, it is more like a tapeworm eating someone from the inside out.” - Carrie Arcos

48. “I suppose we all lie to ourselves sometimes.” - Cassandra Clare

49. “It is better to tell the truth and face the punishment, than to lie and face the consequences.” - Anthony Liccione

50. “The prevarication and white lies which a mind that keeps itself ambitiously pure is as uneasy under as a great artist under the false touches that no eye detects but his own, are worn as lightly as mere trimming when once the actions have become a lie.” - George Eliot

51. “The truth hurts when you live a life of lies.” - Habeeb Akande

52. “There is no effort in time wasted by remembering the truth. A lie requires an effort of life and wasted time to remember because one lie tends to become a lifestyle that destroys.” - Richard Diaz

53. “the difference between secret andlie is similar to the difference of iceand water.when you heat ice it becomes water.and when you force anyone toreveal there secrets it comes in aform of lie.” - munendra dwivedi

54. “A lie, when believed, became the truth.” - Michelle M. Pillow

55. “Lying is an art, if you can convince yourself with lie, then you are a master.” - nikhil yadav

56. “I cried for a while, taking solace in the comforting lie of his embrace. The illusion, the fantasy, it helped. I never wanted to leave. I wanted to stay here forever, held tight to his chest, his fingers stroking my hair, his heart beating against my ear: you’re-safe, trust-me, love-you. Love. Did I want him to love me? Yes. I wanted someone to love me. And what was love if not someone risking their lives to save you? Caleb had saved me. Did it mean he loved me? A part of me wanted to think so. To believe in a romantic ideal that didn’t exist. I wanted to believe the lie. But more than that – I wanted it not to be a lie” - CJ Roberts

57. “A rumor is a social cancer: it is difficult to contain and it rots the brains of the masses. However, the real danger is that so many people find rumors enjoyable. That part causes the infection. And in such cases when a rumor is only partially made of truth, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where the information may have gone wrong. It is passed on and on until some brave soul questions its validity; that brave soul refuses to bite the apple and let the apple eat him. Forced to start from scratch for the sake of purity and truth, that brave soul, figuratively speaking, fully amputates the information in order to protect his personal judgment. In other words, his ignorance is to be valued more than the lie believed to be true.” - Criss Jami