Larry Speakes Quotes

I’ll lie as much as the next guy when my country’s interests are involved—if I have a chance of being believed..

It is sometimes necessary to lie damnably in the interest of the country.

There's good and bad everywhere in any aspect in life. The only people who we can't really trust are politicians. Because those guys lie to everybody and constantly.

Twenty five years in Washington has taught me never to tell a lie to a reporter.

If you want to go into the court of world opinion, you had better go in with clean hands.

If you are going to do something that you have to lie about, don't do it, it's very simple.

For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth.

The rulers of the state are the only persons who ought to have the privilege of lying, either at home or abroad; they may be allowed to lie for the good of the state.

Honesty is a complex and tricky thing, and we don't want to be honest all the time.

An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.

Politicians often claim secrecy is necessary for good governance or national security.

War is often about making the least-worst decision. The same could be said about politics. But the stakes are higher in war, when the commander-in-chief is called upon to defend the nation.

My dad once told me, he was like, 'The only time you should lie is when someone's holding a gun to your head and says 'Okay, lie or I'm going to shoot you.' And that really stuck with me.

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

In Washington the politicians lie on the record and tell the truth off the record. In the Middle East, it’s the opposite. They lie off the record, and tell the truth on the record.

When a majority could benefit only its enemies by telling the truth, history shows that honorable men often preferred to tell what is untrue.

Diplomacy: The patriotic art of lying for one's country.

A good politician doesn't tell you what he's going to do next.

Lying was a way of life. The solution to the problem is ultrasimple: tell the truth, no matter how painful.

Ronald Reagan is not a typical politician because he doesn't know how to lie, cheat, and steal. He's always had an agent for that.

Lies are dangerous but sometimes necessary when a country is in danger.

In politics ... retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.

When I became press secretary my father sent me a telegram and said, "Tell the truth if you can and if you can't tell the truth, don't tell a lie." That became very difficult to do.

Certainly he [Richard M. Nixon] is not of the generation that regards honesty as the best policy.

By and large, our leaders don’t lie to us.