Judith Martin Quotes

An honorable man or woman is one who is truthful; free from deceit; above cheating, lying, stealing, or any form of deception. An honorable man or woman is one who learns early that one cannot do wrong and feel right. A man's character is judged on how he keeps his word and his agreements.

On the whole, I should say that the person who likes to lie should never, in any circumstances, be allowed to. Leave the lying to the people who hate it. You will not find them indulging often.

It is not right or manly to lie even about Satan.

Make a habit of telling the truth, or make a habit of lying: to decide each case on its own merits is exhausting, and hardly ever worth it.

To lapse in fulness Is sorer than to lie for need, and falsehood Is worse in kings than beggars.

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

I've caught myself a time or two adding or embellishing. I don't think that pleases the Lord. I don't think He needs my dishonesty to convey His gospel.

No man should tell a lie unless he is shrewd enough to recognize the time for renouncing it, if and when it comes, and knows how to renounce it gracefully.

One tells as few lies as possible only by telling as few lies as possible, and not by having the least possible opportunity to do so.

I've tried to do away with lying in my life in the last few years, but it's hard.

[Ross Perot] thinks that proclaiming honesty is the same as being honest.

Observe this, that tho a woman swear, forswear, lie, dissemble, back-bite, be proud, vain, malicious, anything, if she secures the main chance, she's still virtuous; that's a maxim.

Do the devils lie? No; for then even hell could not subsist.

I no longer count as one of my merits that I always tell the truth as much as possible; it has become my metier.

George Washington was the president who could never tell a lie, and Richard Nixon was the president who could never tell the truth. Donald Trump is truly the president who can't tell the difference.

Telling the truth and making someone cry is better than telling a lie and making someone smile.

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

A 'penchant for telling the truth' can cripple a candidates chances faster than being caught in flagrante delicto with the governor's wife.

I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies.

It is an occupational hazard that anyone who has spent her life learning how to lie eventually becomes bad at telling the truth.

Like all virtuous people he imagines he must speak the truth.

All lies, white or black, disgrace a gentleman, although I grant there is a difference: to say the least of it, it is a dangerous habit, for white lies are but the gentleman ushers to black ones.

Leaders must not be naive. I used to say, "Liars shouldn't lie." What a sad waste of words that is! I found out liars are supposed to lie. That's why we call them liars - they lie! What else would you expect them to do?

It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and 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.

It is dishonorable to say one thing and think another; how much more dishonorable to write one thing and think another.