George Santayana Quotes

Only the difference between truth and lies, courage and cowardice.

There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a bigger price for living a lie.

You can't be reluctant to give up your lie and still tell the truth.

It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.

I never lie because I don't fear anyone. You only lie when you're afraid.

We are men of action, lies do not become us.

I never really tell lies, and sometimes it has worked against me.

There's freedom in being rigorously honest. I lied all my life.

A hero must be honorable, must have honor. And you can't have honor if you're a liar. There is no honor in lying.

It is better to disappoint people with the truth than to appease them with a lie.

The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. "One word of truth outweighs the world.

Your friend is intellectually honourable," Jimmy's mother would say. "He doesn't lie to himself.

You can't build a foundation on lies.

I always say the truth is best even when we find it unpleasant. Any rat in a sewer can lie. It's how rats are. It's what makes them rats. But a human doesn't run and hide in dark places, because he's something more. Lying is the most personal act of cowardice there is.

Unethical conduct is actually the conduct of destruction and fear; lies are told because one is afraid of the consequences should one tell the truth; thus, the liar is inevitably a coward, the coward is inevitably a liar.

One of my biggest problems in life has been my inability to lie.

He that is ashamed to speak the truth has need to be ashamed of himself.

It is very difficult to tell the truth.

To say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men.

He who observes etiquette but objects to lying is like someone who dresses fashionably but wears no vest.

No lie ever reaches old age.

I am not sincere, even when I say I am not.

A German is someone who cannot tell a lie without believing it himself.

I pray to God that I shall not live one hour after I have thought of using deception.

When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people.