Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

It is easier to deceive yourself, and to do so unperceived, than to deceive another.

The trouble with writing a book about yourself is that you can’t fool around. If you write about someone else, you can stretch the truth from here to Finland. If you write about yourself the slightest deviation makes you realize instantly that there may be honor among thieves, but you are just a dirty liar.

Only one deception is possible in the infinite sense, self-deception.

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

We are never so easily deceived as when we imagine we are deceiving others.

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

All men lie when they are afraid. Some tell many lies, some but a few. Some have only one great lie they tell so often that they almost come to believe it... though some small part of them will always know that it is still a lie, and that will show upon their faces. (a servant in the House of Black and White)

I did not deceive you, mon ami. At most, I permitted you to deceive yourself.

Wherever you go you will find people lying to you, and as your awareness grows, you will notice that you also lie to yourself. Do not expect people to tell you the truth because they also lie to themselves. You have to trust yourself and choose to believe or not to believe what someone says to you.

The best lies about me are the ones I told.

We are our own aptest deceiver.

It is best, if possible, to deceive no one; for he that ... begins by deceiving others, will end ... by deceiving himself.

Man is bound to lie about himself

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

I always divide people into two groups. Those who live by what they know to be a lie, and those who live by what they believe, falsely, to be the truth.

You can read everybody. It's not even interesting to tell the truth because to some extent it's false.

Politicians are better liars than writers.

The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies.

I doubt he knows himself when he’s not telling the truth.

Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing

I can tell very quickly when people are lying.

Liar' is the best work I've done.

I'm the worst liar - I can't lie for my life. And I don't lie at all, because I'm the worst liar - but as a kid, I thought I was a great liar, so I would lie all the time, but everybody knew I was lying.

Malicious lying is usually a matter of need, but often the cruelest things we say are the truth.

If I pretended to be confident all the time, that would just be a lie.