Lies. Everyone has faced them. Whether from a friend, family member, or even ourselves, lies shape our world in unexpected ways. They can break trust, spark curiosity, or even bring humor.
In this article, you’ll find some of the best quotes about liars and lying. These words capture the many sides of deceit, from the comical to the serious. They remind us of the complex dance between truth and lies in daily life.
Why People Lie Quotes
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“Lies are a temporary solution to a permanent problem.”
“Lying is done with words, and also with silence.”
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.”
“The worst part about being lied to is knowing you weren’t worth the truth.”
“Lies are the devil’s candy.”
“A single lie discovered is enough to create doubt in every truth expressed.”
“The lie is a condition of life.”
“Lies are like scars on the soul. They destroy you.”
“When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.”
“We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.”
“Lying is the most simple form of self-defense.”
“To live a lie is to live in a perpetual state of fear.”
“A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.”
“He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it the second time.”
“The hallmark of a liar is not the true words they say, but the honest ones they leave out.”
“A lie can be halfway around the world before the truth has its boots on.”
“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
“Lies are a reckless and cowardly escape.”
“When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.”
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”
“Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.”
“Lies are like weeds. They grow quickly and get out of hand.”
“A good liar knows that the most efficient lie is always a truth that has had a key piece removed from it.”
“Liars are the cause of all the sins and crimes in the world.”
“A lie is just a great story that someone ruined with the truth.”
“Lies aren’t as formidable as they seem. They always crumple under the weight of the truth.”
“Deceit is the false road to happiness; and all the joys we travel through to vice, like fairy banquets, vanish when we touch them.”
“Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.”
“He who does not punish evil commands it to be done.”
“The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.”
“The lie took a winding way, but the truth ran straight to the end.”
“Lies are the shadows of truth where light is always there, but darkness prevails.”
“The biggest lies we save for ourselves.”
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Famous Liars Quotes
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”
“The worst thing about being lied to is knowing you weren’t worth the truth.”
“We are never so easily deceived as when we imagine we are deceiving others.”
“Lies are like scars on the soul. They destroy you.”
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
“Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.”
“To a liar, a liar and a half.”
“The liar’s punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.”
“A liar needs a good memory.”
“Truth is always the strongest argument.”
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
“Lies are like cockroaches, for every one you discover, there are many more that are hidden.”
“The secret of a good lie is that it must sound incredibly true.”
“An honest man’s word is as good as his bond.”
“Deception is a cruel act… It often has many players on different stages that corrode the soul.”
“The slickest way in the world to lie is to tell the right amount of truth at the right time—and then shut up.”
“Liars often set their own traps.”
“Don’t lie to the one who trusts you and don’t trust the one who lies to you.”
“A single lie discovered is enough to create doubt in every truth expressed.”
“A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.”
“Not all lies are told. Some are just lived.”
“Lying is a delightful thing, for it leads to truth.”
“Men lie, and they lie to their women more than they lie to anyone else. And women lie, too. It’s their nature. But the biggest lie one can tell is the one they tell themselves.”
“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
“The liar deceives the self more than the deceived.”
“Lies have short legs.”
“Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.”
“Liar’s punishment: not to be believed even when he tells the truth.”
“There is beauty in truth, even if it’s painful. Those who lie twist life so that it looks tasty to the lazy, brilliant to the ignorant, and powerful to the weak. But lies only strengthen our defects. They don’t teach anything, help anything, fix anything or cure anything nor do they develop one’s character, one’s mind, one’s heart or one’s soul.”
“He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual.”
“Lies are the weapons of those who are not strong enough to stand on their own truth.”
“A lie is just a lie. But once spoken, it flies.”
“When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.”
Historical Liars Quotes
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”
“There is beauty in truth, even if it’s painful. Those who lie twist life so that it looks tasty to the lazy, brilliant to the ignorant, and powerful to the weak, but lies only strengthen our defects.”
“A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.”
“Lies are like scars on the soul. They destroy you.”
“Anyone who says they never lie is lying.”
“Liars share with those they deceive the desire not to be deceived.”
“The truth may be out there, but the lies are inside your head.”
“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.”
“The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.”
“The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.”
“Lies are the social equivalent of toxic waste: Everyone is hurt by them sooner or later.”
“He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it the second time.”
“Liars regard the truth as a luxury they cannot afford.”
“A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.”
“Lies have speed, but truth has endurance.”
“One lie has the power to tarnish a thousand truths.”
“When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.”
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
“I never lie to any man because I don’t fear anyone. The only time you lie is when you are afraid.”
“All the cunning of the devil is exercised in trying to tear us away from the word.”
“A lie may take care of the present, but it has no future.”
“Lies travel faster than the truth.”
“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
“O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!”
“Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie.”
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”
“The lies we tell ourselves are the most subtle of all.”
“Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.”
“Truth exists; only lies are invented.”
“The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.”
“We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.”
“Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.”
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
“When you stretch the truth, watch out for the snapback.”
Clever Liars Quotes
“A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.”
“The most dangerous liars are those who think they are telling the truth.”
“Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire.”
“Lies are the mortar that binds the savage individual man into the social masonry.”
“Lies are the truths of liars.”
“A lie has many variations, the truth none.”
“A liar should have a good memory.”
“A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.”
“The greatest liars are often the most plausible.”
“He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual.”
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”
“Lies can be tender, and cover us like blankets, but they bleach everything a pale gray, never full color, always more shadow than light.”
“Men lie, who lack the courage to tell the truth—the cowards.”
“All war is based on deception.”
“The worst part about being lied to is knowing you weren’t worth the truth.”
“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
“The ability to lie perfectly is one of the greatest talents ever bestowed upon mankind.”
“A lie travels round the world while truth is putting her boots on.”
“He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.”
“Lies are the currency of the world.”
“Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.”
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”
“Those who think it is permissible to tell white lies soon grow color-blind.”
“There are three types of lies — lies, damn lies, and statistics.”
“A half-truth is a whole lie.”
“The mouth may lie, alright, but the face it makes nonetheless tells the truth.”
“Lying is done with words, and also with silence.”
“With lies you may go ahead in the world, but you can never go back.”
“The truth may be out there, but the lies are inside your head.”
“A good liar knows that the most efficient lie is always a truth that has had a key piece removed from it.”
“The surest way to be deceived is to consider oneself cleverer than others.”
“A lie can be halfway around the world before the truth has its boots on.”
“The lie that flatters, I abhor the most.”
“Lies are a temporary solution to a permanent problem.”
Impact of Lies Quotes
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”
“He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual.”
“Lies are like scars on the soul. They destroy you.”
“When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.”
“A single lie discovered is enough to create doubt in every truth expressed.”
“Lies may comfort you, but they won’t set you free.”
“The biggest consequence of telling a lie is, it leads you to tell another one.”
“Lies are a temporary solution to a permanent problem.”
“When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.”
“The truth is you can’t trust a liar.”
“A liar should have a good memory.”
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
“Lies are the silent killers of love.”
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
“No one believes a liar. Even when he’s telling the truth.”
“Lies are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind.”
“Deception is a cruel act… It often has many players on different stages that corrode the soul.”
“One lie is enough to question all truths.”
“A lie that is half-truth is the darkest of all lies.”
“We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.”
“Lies beget more lies.”
“Every lie is a poison; there are no harmless lies. Only the truth is safe.”
“When you tell a lie, you deny yourself the power of the truth.”
“A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.”
“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
“Liars are the cause of all the sins and crimes in the world.”
“Lying is done with words, and also with silence.”
“The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.”
“Lies are a part of the soul’s path to the truth.”
“Reality is easy. It’s deception that’s the hard work.”
“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!”
“Lies require commitment.”
“Sometimes, the lies we tell ourselves are more damaging than the lies we tell others.”
“Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.”
Truth vs. Lies Quotes
“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t going away.”
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
“we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
“The truth may hurt for a little while, but a lie hurts forever.”
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
“The best liars are those who tell the truth most of the time.”
“A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.”
“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally.”
“Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.”
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
“A single lie discovered is enough to create doubt in every truth expressed.”
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”
“An honest enemy is better than a false friend.”
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
“Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.”
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”
“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”
“Lying is done with words, and also with silence.”
“The cruelest lies are often told in silence.”
“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.”
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
“A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.”
“The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.”
“Don’t lie to someone who trusts you. Don’t trust someone who lies to you.”
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.”
“Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.”
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
“Liars need to have good memories.”
“One lie has the power to tarnish a thousand truths.”
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
“Speak the truth, or the truth will speak for you.”
Liars in Literature Quotes
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.”
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”
“Lies are like scars on your soul. They destroy you.”
“Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.”
“For all men live by truth, and stand in need of expression. In love, the deceit is in the omission, not in the lie.”
“But I am a great liar. My most recent lie is that I am teaching high school.”
“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”
“People are like tea bags; you find out how strong they are when you put them in hot water.”
“It is easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that no one has heard before.”
“Before telling a lie, think about how hard it is to keep telling lies consistently.”
“Lies were like acid—they could eat through anything.”
“I lie to myself all the time, but I never believe me.”
“The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.”
“A lie that is half-truth is the darkest of all lies.”
“What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
“Sometimes lies are more dependable than the truth.”
“A single lie destroys a whole reputation of integrity.”
“There are two ways of lying. One, not telling the truth and the other, making up statistics.”
“The worst part about being lied to is knowing you weren’t worth the truth.”
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”
“Artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up.”
“Lies are like children. They’re hard work, but it’s worth it because the rewards are just so damn sweet.”
“There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
“Half the truth is often a great lie.”
“Lying is done with words, and also with silence.”
“We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.”
“When you lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.”
“A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.”
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”
“The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.”
“Liars often set their houses on fire in order to escape the truth.”
“We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.”
“Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.”
Quotes About Self-Deception
“We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves.”
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.”
“The worst of all deceptions is self-deception.”
“We are never so easily deceived as when we imagine we are deceiving others.”
“It is a fool’s prerogative to deceive himself.”
“Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.”
“Self-deception is nature; hypocrisy is art.”
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
“People will believe any lie that has been told to them often enough and convincingly enough.”
“Man is not what he thinks he is; he is what he hides.”
“The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively the exception.”
“The easiest person to fool is yourself.”
“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity for self-deception.”
“He who deceives himself is more likely to repeat the lies he tells.”
“What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive… ourselves.”
“The self-deceiver is his own worst enemy.”
“One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.”
“A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else.”
“Self-deception is the root of all evil.”
“The mirror is a friend to those who do not lie to themselves.”
“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”
“One of the greatest challenges we face is recognizing the lies we tell ourselves.”
“He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual.”
“We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.”
“It requires less character to discover the faults of others, than to tolerate them.”
“Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine.”
“When we are honest with ourselves, we cannot lie to others.”
“We lie best when we lie to ourselves.”
“Self-deception isn’t the worst thing you can do, it’s the easiest.”
“One of the most difficult things to accept is that while you may lie to others, you cannot lie to your conscience.”
“It is not the lie that passes through the mind, but the lie that sinks in and settles in it that does the harm.”
“All the lies we tell others, start with the lies we tell ourselves.”
“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
To Wrap It Up
Lies have been an intriguing subject throughout history, and the quotes we’ve explored show how deeply they touch our lives. From wise sayings to witty remarks, these quotes remind us of the impact that untruths can have on our relationships and society.
Whether they make us laugh or think deeply, these quotes highlight the reality of deceit in a way that everyone can understand. Hopefully, reflecting on these words will inspire us to seek honesty and transparency in our daily lives. In a world where lies can easily spread, let’s appreciate the power of truth even more.