“If you want to become a man of letters and perhaps write some Histories one day, you must also lie and invent tales, otherwise your History would become monotonous. But you must act with restraint. The world condemns liars who do nothing but lie, even about the most trivial things, and it rewards poets, who lie only about the greatest things.”

“Is it possible to tell the truth in a society of lies? Or must you always, of necessity, become a liar?”

“All the past is a lie. All history, all memories, all of it, are just illusions. None of it is who your are. The very next thing you do....that is who you are.”

“There are no ‘perfect liars’ in the world; there are only ‘perfect believers’ who believe in even the most obvious lies!”

“When treating with liars, even an honest man must lie.”

“And your doubt can become a good quality if you train it. It must become knowing, it must become criticism. Ask it, whenever it wants to spoil something for you, why something is ugly, demand proofs from it, test it, and you will find it perhaps bewildered and embarrased, perhaps also protesting. But don't give in, insist on arguments, and act in this way, attentive and persistent, every single time, and the day will come when, instead of being a destroyer, it will become one of your best workers--perhaps the most intelligent of all the ones that are building your life.”