 | I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you. — Friedrich Nietzsche,1844-1900,German philosopher |
| A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky,1821-1881,Russian writer |
| A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. — Mark Twain,1835-1910,American writer |
| There are always four sides to a story: your side, their side, the truth and what really happened. — Jean Jacques Rousseau,1712-1778,Swiss-French philosopher |
| If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. — Mark Twain,1835-1910,American writer |
| A lie told often enough becomes the truth. — Vladimir Lenin,1870-1924,Soviet revolutionary & leader |
| As to the book called the bible, it is blasphemy to call it the Word of God. It is a book of lies and contradictions and a history of bad times and bad men. — Thomas Paine,1737-1809,English-American writer |
| The victor will never be asked if he told the truth. — Adolf Hitler,1889-1945,German dictator |
| When people can not change things, they change the words. — Jean Jaures,1859-1914,French Socialist leader |
| The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived, and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. — John Kennedy,1917-1963,American President [1961-1963] |
| There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics. — Benjamin Disraeli,1804-1881,British Prime Minister |
| If you're going to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh; otherwise they'll kill you. — George Bernard Shaw,1856-1950,Irish writer, Nobel 1925 |
| The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else. — George Bernard Shaw,1856-1950,Irish writer, Nobel 1925 |
| It is not easy to keep silent when silence is a lie. — Victor Hugo,1802-1885,French writer |
| By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth. — George Carlin,1936-2008,American comedian |
| When in doubt, tell the truth. — Mark Twain,1835-1910,American writer |
| People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election. — Otto von Bismarck,1815-1898,German chancellor |
| Half a truth is often a great lie. — Benjamin Franklin,1706-1790,American politician & writer |
| In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. — George Orwell,1903-1950,British writer |
| A lie has speed, but truth has endurance. — Edgar J. Mohn,(unidentified) |
| 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,1757-1827,English poet & painter |
| Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies. — Charles Dickens,1812-1870,British writer |
| You will never learn what I am thinking. And those who boast most loudly that they know my thought, to such people I lie even more. — Adolf Hitler,1889-1945,German dictator |
| People who read the tabloids deserve to be lied to. — Jerry Seinfeld,1954-,American comedian |
| How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print. — Karl Kraus,1874-1936,Austrian writer |
| Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth. — Franklin Roosevelt,1882-1945,American President [1936-1945] |
| What is the truth, but a lie agreed upon. — Friedrich Nietzsche,1844-1900,German philosopher |
| We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction. — Douglas MacArthur,1880-1964,American general |
| A lie has no leg, but a scandal has wings. — Dr. Thomas Fuller,1654-1734, English physician and adage collector |
| A liar should have a good memory. — Quintilian,35-96 AD,Roman rhetorician |
| A lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez,1927-2014,Colombian writer |
| When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends. — Mark Twain,1835-1910,American writer |
| Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. — Oscar Wilde,1854-1900,Irish writer |
| It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place. — H.L. Mencken,1880-1956,American columnist & cultural critic |
| Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky,1821-1881,Russian writer |
| Never apologize for showing feeling, my friend. Remember that when you do so, you apologize for truth. — Benjamin Disraeli,1804-1881,British Prime Minister |
| I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell. — Harry Truman,1884-1972,American President [1945-1953] |
| Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. — Graham Greene,1904-1991,British writer |
| A generous confession disarms slander. — Dr. Thomas Fuller,1654-1734, English physician and adage collector |
| The truth may be out there, but the lies are inside your head. — Terry Pratchett,1948-2015,British writer |
| Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error. — Wolfgang Goethe,1749-1832,German poet & philosopher |
| Never lie when the truth is more profitable. — Stanislaw Jerzy Lec,1906-1966,Polish author of maxims |
| When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth. — George Bernard Shaw,1856-1950,Irish writer, Nobel 1925 |
| I am a lie who always speaks the truth. — Jean Cocteau,1889-1963,French artist |
| It takes two to speak the truth — one to speak and another to hear. — Henry David Thoreau,1817-1862,American writer |
| Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky,1821-1881,Russian writer |
| Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie. — Ludwig Wittgenstein,1889-1951,Austrian philosopher |
| Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies. — Friedrich Nietzsche,1844-1900,German philosopher |
| Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. — Mark Twain,1835-1910,American writer |
| Advertising is legalized lying. — H.G. Wells,1866-1946,British writer |
| Political truth is libel; religious truth, blasphemy. — William Hazlitt ,1778-1830,English essayist & critic |
| Always tell the Truth : where it is not loved, it is respected and feared. — Dr. Thomas Fuller,1654-1734, English physician and adage collector |
| A lie that is half-truth is the darkest of all lies. — Alfred Tennyson,1809-1892,English poet |
| My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world. — George Bernard Shaw,1856-1950,Irish writer, Nobel 1925 |
| That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false. — Paul Valery,1871-1945,French poet |
| When a woman begins to point out that she is honest, it's time to be wary. — Alfred Capus,1858-1922,French writer |
| Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth. — Theodore Adorno,1903-1969,German philosopher |
| Two half truths do not make a truth. — Arthur Koestler,1905-1983,Hungarian-British writer |
| Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats. — George Orwell,1903-1950,British writer |
| The most dangerous of all falsehoods is a slightly distorted truth. — Georg Christoph Lichtenberg,1742-1799,German author of maxims |
| Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not be believed. — William Blake,1757-1827,English poet & painter |
| Truth never damages a cause that is just. — Mahatma Gandhi,1869-1948,Indian leader of independence |
| Although you may tell lies, people will believe you, if only you speak with authority. — Anton Chekhov,1860-1904,Russian writer |
| Freedom is a very great reality, but it means above all things, freedom from lies. — D. H. Lawrence,1885-1930,British writer |
| When a woman tells the truth, it is to disguise a lie. — Henri Jeanson,1900-1970,French critic & columnist |
| It only takes a politician believing in what he says for others to stop believing in him. — Jean Baudrillard,1929-2007,French intellectual |
| The man who tells lies hides the truth, but the man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it. — Robert Oxton Bolt,1924-1955,British playwright |
| Truth is contrary to our nature, not so error, and this for a very simple reason; truth demands that we should recognize ourselves as limited, error flatters us that, in one way or another, we are unlimited. — Wolfgang Goethe,1749-1832,German poet & philosopher |
| Semiotics is, in principle, the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie. — Umberto Eco,1932-2016,Italian writer |
| A book in which there were no lies would be a curiosity. — Napoleon,1769-1821,French Emperor |
| Beware of telling an improbable truth. — Dr. Thomas Fuller,1654-1734, English physician and adage collector |
| Falsehood is invariably the child of fear in one form or another. — Aleister Crowley,1875-1945,British magician & occultist, |
| You mustn't always believe what I say. Questions tempt you to tell lies, particularly when there is no answer. — Pablo Picasso,1881-1973,Spanish painter |
| There is no other way of guarding oneself against flattery than by letting men understand that they will not offend you by speaking the truth; but when everyone can tell you the truth, you lose their respect. — Niccolò Machiavelli,1469-1527,Italian political philosopher |
| There are truths which one can only say after having won the right to say them. — Jean Cocteau,1889-1963,French artist |
| You should tell the truth from time to time, in order to believe you when you lie. — Jules Renard,1864-1910,French writer |
| What is true, is true only for one time and only for one place. — T. S. Eliot,1888-1965,British poet, Nobel 1948 |
| Even if it is not true, it is well conceived Se non è vero, è molto ben trovato. — Giordano Bruno,1548-1600,Italian monk & philosopher |
| When I hear a critic speaking of an author’s sincerity, I know that either the critic or the author is a fool. — Vladimir Nabokov,1899-1977,Russian-American writer |
| Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth. — Pablo Picasso,1881-1973,Spanish painter |
| Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully. — Aristotle,384-322 BC,Ancient Greek philosopher |
| The truest sayings are paradoxical. — Lao-Tzu,6th cent. BC,Chinese philosopher |
| Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth. — Albert Camus,1913-1960,French writer, Nobel 1957 |
| The real truths are those that can be invented. — Karl Kraus,1874-1936,Austrian writer |
| My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying. — Anton Chekhov,1860-1904,Russian writer |
| Sincerity is the surest road to confidence. — David Lloyd George,1863-1945,British Prime Minister [1916-1922] |
| A truth looks freshest in the fashions of the day. — Alfred Tennyson,1809-1892,English poet |
| There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil. — Alfred North Whitehead,1861-1947,British philosopher & mathematician |
| Falsehood is never in words; it is in things. — Italo Calvino,1923-1985,Italian writer |
| Gossip needn’t be false to be evil – there’s a lot of truth that shouldn’t be passed around. — Frank A. Clark,1911-1991,American cartoonist |
| Tell the truth and shame the devil. — François Rabelais,1484-1553,French writer |
| The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies. — Cesare Pavese,1908-1950,Italian writer |
| An irreligious society cannot endure the truth of the human condition. It prefers a lie, no matter how idiotic it may be. — Nicolas Gomez Davila,1913-1994,Colombian writer |
| The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy. — Thomas Sowell,1930 -,American political thinker |
| There are only two ways of telling the complete truth –anonymously and posthumously. — Thomas Sowell,1930 -,American political thinker |
| Reason is made up of truths that must be told and truths that are not to be told. — Antoine Rivarol,1753-1801,French author of maxims |
| Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all. — Oliver W. Holmes Sr.,1809-1894,American writer |
| Lawyers spend their professional careers shoveling smoke. — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.,1841-1935, |
| There is no truth. There is only perception. — Gustave Flaubert,1821-1880,French writer |
| For the journalist, whatever is probable is true. — Honoré de Balzac,1799-1850,French writer |
| Coming out of some mouths, the truth itself smells bad. — Jean Rostand,1894-1977,French scientist & philosopher |
| Several excuses are always less convincing than one. — Aldοus Huxley,1894-1963,English writer |
| Always the victor writes the history of the vanquished. He who beats distorts the faces of the beaten. The weaker depart from this world and the lies remain. — Bertolt Brecht,1898-1956,German writer |
| Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears. — Rudyard Kipling,1865-1936,English writer, Nobel 1907 |
| In human relationships, kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths. — Graham Greene,1904-1991,British writer |
| A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction. — Coco Chanel,1883-1971,French fashion designer |
| In talking about the past, we lie with every breath we draw. — William Maxwell,1908-2000,American writer |
| Lying is the strongest acknowledgment of the force of truth. — William Hazlitt ,1778-1830,English essayist & critic |
| An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offense; a vain man, in order that it may. — William Hazlitt ,1778-1830,English essayist & critic |
| The first virtue of all really great men is that they are sincere. They eradicate hypocrisy from their hearts. — Anatole France,1844-1924,French writer, Nobel 1921 |
| All the historical books which contain no lies are extremely tedious. — Anatole France,1844-1924,French writer, Nobel 1921 |
| A German is someone who cannot tell a lie without believing it himself. — Theodore Adorno,1903-1969,German philosopher |
| It takes one minute to tell a lie, and an hour to refute it. — Noam Chomsky,1928-,American linguist, philosopher, social activist |
| It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies. — Noam Chomsky,1928-,American linguist, philosopher, social activist |
| I will never be able to write my memoirs, I lie too much. — Marcel Achard,1899-1974,French playwright |
| The cruelest lies are often told in silence. — Robert Louis Stevenson,1850-1894,Scottish writer |
| We lie better in writing. — Henry de Montherlant,1895-1972,French writer |
| Do not lie: it is a defense that is only given to children. — Henry de Montherlant,1895-1972,French writer |
| Exaggeration is the lie of the honest man. — Joseph De Maistre,1753-1821,Savoyard diplomat & philosopher |
| History is a constant conspiracy against the truth. — Joseph De Maistre,1753-1821,Savoyard diplomat & philosopher |
| Conscience is better served by a myth. — John Kenneth Galbraith,1908-2006,American-Canadian economist |
| It is not a matter of what is true that counts, but a matter of what is perceived to be true. — Henry Kissinger,1923-2023,American politician |
| If you believe that their real intention is to kill you, it isn't unreasonable to believe that they would lie to you. — Henry Kissinger,1923-2023,American politician (on doubts about PLO sincerity about recognition of Israel) |
| Lying is the oxygen of social breathing. — Maurice Chapelan,1906-1992,French author of maxims & journalist |
| To pretend to believe a lie is an exquisite lie. — Maurice Chapelan,1906-1992,French author of maxims & journalist |
| If you have something to say and say nothing, you are really telling a lie. — Ashleigh Brilliant,1933-,British cartoonist & epigrammatist |
| If I'm sincere today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow? — José Saramago,1922-2010,Portuguese writer [Nobel 1998] (Blindness, 1995) |
| Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty. — Stephen King,1947-,American author of horror & fantasy fiction |
| Fiction is the truth inside the lie. — Stephen King,1947-,American author of horror & fantasy fiction |
| There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. — Søren Kierkegaard,1813-1855,Danish philosopher |
| Where there are two people, there is untruth. — Søren Kierkegaard,1813-1855,Danish philosopher |
| Truth is what's left when you run out of excuses. — Marty Rubin,1930-1994,Canadian gay activist, author & journalist |
| I like to do my principal research in bars, where people are more likely to tell the truth or, at least, lie less convincingly than they do in briefings and books. — P.J. O’ Rourke,1947-2022,American columnist & writer |
| The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind. — H.L. Mencken,1880-1956,American columnist & cultural critic |
| To say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. — Francis Bacon,1561-1626,English philosopher |
| The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth. — Frank Herbert,1920-1986,American sci-fi writer |
| Show me a completely smooth operation and I'll show you someone who's covering mistakes. Real boats rock. — Frank Herbert,1920-1986,American sci-fi writer |
| Any truth is better than indefinite doubt. — Arthur Conan Doyle,1859-1930,British writer |
| I’d rather see folks doubt what’s true than accept what isn’t. — Frank A. Clark,1911-1991,American cartoonist |
| False modesty is the most decent of all lies. — Nicolas Chamfort,1740-1794,French writer |
| On the surface, an intelligible lie; underneath, the unintelligible truth. — Milan Kundera,1929-2023,Czech writer |
| Sanity is a cozy lie. — Susan Sontag,1933-2004,American writer, critic, activist |
| Novelists tell that piece of truth hidden at the bottom of every lie. — Italo Calvino,1923-1985,Italian writer |
| To overvalue something is a form of lying. — Baltasar Gracian,1601-1658,Spanish writer |
| A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity. — Baltasar Gracian,1601-1658,Spanish writer |
| Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie. — Ludwig Wittgenstein,1889-1951,Austrian philosopher |
| When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear. — Thomas Sowell,1930 -,American political thinker |
The quotes you provided encompass a vast array of thoughts and perspectives on truth, lies, and perception from various philosophers, writers, politicians, and thinkers throughout history. To cover the concepts within these quotes, let's break down the key themes:
Each quote offers a unique perspective on these themes, portraying the complexities and nuances surrounding the concepts of truth and lies. The compilation as a whole reflects a deep understanding of human behavior, societal dynamics, and the intricacies of truth perception throughout history.
