Zadie Smith Quotes

Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers.

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

He hath a share of man's intelligence, but no share of man's falsehood.

Pure by impure is not seen.

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.

I've always felt like there are certain politicians that wear their religion on their sleeve in a way that you almost feel is disingenuous. I think that your faith has to be first personal. I struggle with those people that preach something and go back behind closed doors and live differently.

All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.

The truthful man is usually a liar.

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

He who does not need to lie is proud of not being a liar.

Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks a little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action.

You should not live one way in private, another in public.

Those who make use of devotion as a means and end generally are hypocrites.

We never deceive people to benefit them, for knavery is a compound of wickedness and falsehood.

A false man found a religion? Why, a false man cannot build a brick house!

So from then on, he looked at all his choices and said, What would a good person do, and then did it. But he has now learned something very important about human nature. If you spend your whole life pretending to be good, then you are indistinguishable from a good person. Relentless hypocrisy eventually becomes the truth.

Do you know why I have credibility? Because I don't exude morality.

There is an innocence in lying which is the sign of good faith in a cause.

Hypocrisy is fatal to religion.

Better is the wrong with sincerity, rather than the right with falsehood.

You cannot con an honest man.

You can't pray a lie -- I found that out.

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

Deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie - I found that out.

When in doubt, tell the truth. That maxim I did invent, but never expected it to be applied to me. I did say, "When you are in doubt," but when I am in doubt myself I use more sagacity.