Dishonesty

"You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion."

"Fraud and prevarication are servile vices. They sometimes grow out of the necessities, always out of the habits, of slavish and degenerate spirits…. It is an erect countenance, it is a firm adherence to principle, it is a power of resisting false shame and frivolous fear, that assert our good faith and honor, and assure to us the confidence of mankind."

"Where this will end? In the Abyss, one may prophecy; whither all Delusions are, at all moments, travelling; where this Delusion has now arrived. For if there be a Faith, from of old, it is this, as we often repeat, that no Lie can live for ever. The very Truth has to change its vesture, from time to time; and be born again. But all Lies have sentence of death written down against them, and Heaven's Chancery itself; and, slowly or fast, advance incessantly towards their hour."

"You know where you are with a complete liar, but when a chap mixes some truth with his yarns, you can't trust a word he says."

"You will destroy those who speak lies. Jehovah detests violent and deceptive people."

"Mankind are not held together by lies. Trust is the foundation of society. Where there is no truth, there can be no trust, and where there is no trust, there can be no society. Where there is society, there is trust, and where there is trust, there is something upon which it is supported."

"When we risk no contradiction, It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction."

"Don't lie, but don't tell the whole truth."

"A lie will gallop halfway round the world before the truth has time to pull its breeches on."

"Deceit is this world's passport: who would dare, However pure the breast, to lay it bare?"

"In the majority of cases which are brought to me as a consulting psychologist for love and marital adjustment, there are self-deceptions to be uncovered as well as attempts to deceive other people. Beneath such love conflicts there is almost always a festering psychological core of dishonesty."

"Do not deceive one another."

"Therefore, now that you have put away deceit, each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, because we are members belonging to one another."

"Do not lie to one another. Strip off the old personality with its practices."

"The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies. The fearful thing about it is that, not knowing what truth may be, we can still recognize lies."

"So rid yourselves of all badness and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all backbiting."

"The rulers wanted to fool people, since they saw that people have a kinship with what is truly good. They took the names of the good and assigned them to what is not good, to fool people with names and link the names to what is not good. So, as if they were doing people a favor, they took names from what is not good and transferred them to the good, in their own way of thinking. For they wished to take free people and enslave them forever."

"False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil."

"Engin mieulx vault que force."

"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth."

"O, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!"

"With an auspicious and a dropping eye, With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole."

"They fool me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by."

"But when the fox hath once got in his nose, He'll soon find means to make the body follow."

"A quicksand of deceit."

"The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray us In deepest consequence."

"The world is still deceiv'd with ornament, In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being season'd with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?"

"Make the Moor thank me, love me and reward me, For making him egregiously an ass."

"Who makes the fairest show means most deceit."

"Oh, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, And with a virtuous vizard hide foul guile."

"O, that deceit should dwell In such a gorgeous palace!"

"Truthful lips will endure forever, but a lying tongue will last for only a moment."

"The righteous one hates lies, but the actions of the wicked bring shame and disgrace."

"Bread gained by deceit tastes good to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel."

"A lie is an abomination unto the Lord, and a very present help in trouble."

"The dishonest man stole silver; the honest man will earn his pay."

"When dishonest men come to your banquet, they are troubled and try to hide it."

"I think the inherent right of the Government to lie to save itself when faced with nuclear disaster is basic."

"A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human."

"All warfare is based on deception."

"A lie has no legs, and cannot stand; but it has wings, and can fly far and wide."

"I never lie, even to this day. Not even a little. Unless you count playing pranks on people, which I don't. That's comedy. Entertainment doesn't count. A joke is different from a lie, even if the difference is kind of subtle."

"God is not averse to deceit in a holy cause."

"There is a cunning which we in England call the turning of the cat in the pan."

"Think'st thou there are no serpents in the world But those who slide along the grassy sod, And sting the luckless foot that presses them? There are who in the path of social life Do bask their spotted skins in Fortune's sun, And sting the soul."

"What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women."

"If the world will be gulled, let it be gulled."

"Populus vult decipi; decipiatur."

"Improbi hominis est mendacio fallere."

"A delusion, a mockery, and a snare."

"But Esau's hands suit ill with Jacob's voice."

"Man wird betrogen, man betrügt sich selbst."

"Non mancano pretesti quando si vuole."

"Which I wish to remark— And my language is plain,— That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar."

"The angel answer'd, "Nay, sad soul; go higher! To be deceived in your true heart's desire Was bitterer than a thousand years of fire!""

"Hateful to me as are the gates of hell, Is he who, hiding one thing in his heart, Utters another."

"Vous le croyez votre dupe: s'il feint de l'être, qui est plus dupe, de lui ou de vous?"

"On ne trompe point en bien; la fourberie ajoute la malice au mensonge."

"Car c'est double plaisir de tromper le trompeur."

"Le bruit est pour le fat, la plainte pour le sot; L'honnête homme trompé s'éloigne et ne dit mot."

"On pout être plus fin qu'un autre, mais non pas plus fin que tous les autres."

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time."

"It is vain to find fault with those arts of deceiving, wherein men find pleasure to be deceived."

"Where the lion's skin falls short it must be eked out with the fox's."

"He seemed For dignity compos'd and high exploit: But all was false and hollow."

"On est aisément dupé par ce qu'on aime."

"Impia sub dulci melle venena latent."

"Pia fraus."

"Furtum ingeniosus ad omne, Qui facere assueret, patriæ non degener artis, Candida de nigris, et de candentibus atra."

"Fronte politus Astutam vapido servas sub pectore vulpem."

"Habent insidias hominis blanditiæ mali."

"Altera manu fert lapidem, altera panem ostentat."

"Singuli enim decipere et decipi possunt: nemo omnes, neminem omnes fefellunt."

"Savoir dissimuler est le savoir des rois."

"Wir betrügen und schmeicheln niemanden durch so feine Kunstgriffe als uns selbst."

"Orlando's helmet in Augustine's cowl."

"Hinc nunc præmium est, qui recta prava faciunt."

"Deceit and treachery skulk with hatred, but an honest spirit flieth with anger."

"Or shipwrecked, kindles on the coast False fires, that others may be lost."

"Dissimulation in youth is the forerunner of perfidy in old age; its first appearance is the fatal omen of growing depravity and future shame."

"Wisdom and truth, the offspring of the sky, are immortal; while cunning and deception, the meteors of the earth, after glittering for a moment, must pass away."

"Lie not, neither to thyself nor men nor God. Let mouth and heart be one — beat and speak together, and make both felt in action. It is for cowards to lie."

"Dishonor waits on perfidy. A man should blush to think a falsehood; it is the crime of cowards."

"I have seldom known any one who deserted truth in trifles that could be trusted in matters of importance."