Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.
— Franklin D. Roosevelt
Colossal Dishonesty And Lying quotations
Who lies for you will lie against you.
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
Deceivers are the most dangerous members of society.
They trifle with the best affections of our nature, and violate the most sacred obligations.
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind.
Let honesty be as the breath of thy soul;
then shalt thou reach the point of happiness, and independence shall be thy shield and buckler, thy helmet and crown; then shall thy soul walk upright, nor stoop to the silken wretch because he hath riches, nor pocket an abuse because the hand which offers it wears a ring set with diamonds.
Time will inevitably uncover dishonesty and lies; history has no place for them.
That lies should be necessary to life is part and parcel of the terrible and questionable character of existence.
Where questions of religion are concerned, people are guilty of every possible sort of dishonesty and intellectual misdemeanor.
Before us lie two paths - honesty and dishonesty.
The shortsighted embark on the dishonest path; the wise on the honest. For the wise know the truth; in helping others we help ourselves; and in hurting others we hurt ourselves. Character overshadows money, and trust rises above fame. Honesty is still the best policy.
Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.
There is something in corruption which, like a jaundiced eye, transfers the color of itself to the object it looks upon, and sees everything stained and impure.
Lying is a most disgraceful vice; it first despises God, and then fears men.
It is not without good reason, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.
And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but the truth in masquerade.
Honesty is the rarest wealth anyone can possess.
Some false representations contravene the law;
some do not. The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business, and, besides, could not be done. The line between honesty and dishonesty is a narrow, shifting one and usually lets those get by that are the most subtle and already have more than they can use.
Truly, to tell lies is not honorable;
but when the truth entails tremendous ruin, to speak dishonorably is pardonable.
A Falsehood is, in one sense, a dead thing;
but too often it moves about, galvanized by self-will, and pushes the living out of their seats.
The 'fires'n that produce thick, rarely innocent, often strategic smoke should therefore be scrutinized. they should be known and identified; and when they involve dishonesty, lies, or manipulation, they they should be ignored.
It may be objected, that I am now recommending dissimulation to you;
I both own and justify it. It has been long said: Qui nescitdissimular nescit regnare: I go still farther, and say, that without some dissimulation, no business can be carried on at all.
Anecdote: In a controversial way, Comedian and actor Bill Cosby sought to teach his son the pain of being lied to. Convinced his son had been dishonest regarding an issue, Cosby promised that if he told him the truth, he would not hit him. When his son did confess, Cosby did hit him. Seeing his son's shock and hurt, Cosby said he hoped this lesson had deepened his understanding of the anguish generated by a sense betrayal.
By lying, we deny others a view of the world as it is.
Our dishonesty not only influences the choices they make, it often determines the choices they can make—and in ways we cannot always predict. Every lie is a direct assault upon the autonomy of those we lie to.
Our world is very dishonest, and our leaders encourage dishonesty by setting bad examples - by lying, being corrupt, and using political sleight of hand to sustain power.
Left-wing social policies sicken our behavior and corrupt our culture.
People bend principles and sacrifice integrity to get as much as they can from the government. Giveaway programs encourage every imaginable sort of cheating and dishonesty. Wheeling and dealing in food stamps is a way of life. Lying and fraud are commonplace. Whenever you're dependent on the money, the end justifies the means.
That was how dishonesty and betrayal started, not in big lies but in small secrets.
Though a censure lies against those who are poor and proud, yet is Pride sooner to be forgiven in a poor person than in a rich one; since in the latter it is insult and arrogance; in the former, it may be a defense against temptations to dishonesty; and, if manifested on proper occasions, may indicate a natural bravery of mind, which the frowns of fortune cannot depress.
The only disadvantage of an honest heart is credulity.
Justification for infidelity and dishonesty in all their manifestations lies in the marginal cost economics of “just this once.
Hatred and dishonesty generally arises from fear of being deceived.
There are some things that we know are just not as pleasant as the lies that we tell ourselves, and in that sense in order to endure existence everyone endures a certain amount of dishonesty in their everyday lives.
I have learned that in a long life we all eventually play the part of the betrayed, and we all eventually play the part of the betrayer, and neither is pleasant because both roles involve pain, inflicting or absorbing it.
A lie may take care of the present, but it has no future.
Sociopaths are not usually physically violent.
A typical sociopath never kills anybody and doesn't look like Charles Manson - they look like you and me and everybody else. You're not looking for someone who's recognizably evil or scary-looking, but rather someone who looks normal. Another lynchpin is dishonesty. Lying for the sake of lying. Lying just to see whether you can trick people. And sometimes telling larger lies to get larger effects.
I don't want to lie. I dislike dishonesty. And I work in Hollywood, a town and a business that relies on a lot of falsehoods with people hiding behind different facades. I don't want to be a part of that.
A lie is an abomination unto the Lord, and a very present help in trouble.
Lying and cheating in advertising, in the long run, are commercial suicide. Dishonesty in advertising destroys not only confidence in advertising, but also in the medium which carries the dishonest advertisement. . . . No one can be ill in a community without endangering others; no advertiser can be dishonest without casting suspicion upon others.
There is no glory in honesty if it is destructive. And no shame in dishonesty if its goal is to offer grace.