Edith Wharton Quotes

Among other common lies, we have the silent lie - the deception which one conveys by simply keeping still and concealing the truth. Many obstinate truth-mongers indulge in this dissipation, imagining that if they speak no lie, they lie not at all.

The insincerity of man-all men are liars, partial or hiders of facts, half tellers of truths, shirks, moral sneaks. When a merely honest man appears he is a comet-his fame is eternal-needs no genius, no talent-mere honesty

Man seems to be an animal whose capacity for lies is only equalled by his credulity; it does no good to let battalions of cats outof bags, to produce whole harems of naked facts, people eat the same three meals daily deception, and are always ready to turn with fury upon the purveyors of bagless cats and facts undraped. Probably their instinct is wise. Who knows?

Liars hate silence, so they often try to fill it up by talking more than they need to. They provide far more information than was needed or asked for.

Politicians learn to turn the truth into something that they want the truth to be.

... the most notorious liar in the country.

It is the oldest story in the coverage of Government: The failure to tell the truth.

Have you weaned yourself of your off-putting proclivity for not telling the truth/

Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!

For the task assigned them Men aren't smart enough or sly Any rogue can blind them With a clever lie.

The liar wants to be believed, but lying undermines the foundation for credibility.

Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. The bullshitter ignores these demands altogether. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

Note to self: Rachel Morgan is a totally awesome liar.

Lies," Mr Solomon said the next morning as he walked into the classroom. "We tell them to our friends," he said. "We tell them to our enemies. And eventually...we tell them to ourselves.

It's obvious that things aren't going well over there. This is a war based on lies.

A lie always needs a truth for a handle to it. The worst lies are those whose blade is false, but whose handle is true.

Especially difficult when the first and best unconscious move of a dedicated liar is to persuade himself he's sincere. And once he's sincere, all deception vanishes.

Liars often set their own traps.

There are three kinds of liars: liars, damned liars, and statisticians

Give me just enough information so that I can lie convincingly.

The perjurer's mother told white lies.

LIAR, n. One who tells an unpleasant truth.

What I warn you to remember is that I am a detective. Our relationship with truth is fundamental but cracked, refracting confusingly like fragmented glass. It is the core of our careers, the endgame of every move we make, and we pursue it with strategies painstakingly constructed of lies and concealment and every variation on deception.

Of course, the liar often imagines that he does no harm as long as his lies go undetected.

Clinton's an unusually good liar. Unusually Good. Do you realize that?