Edmond de Goncourt Quotes

And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but the truth in a masquerade.

A lie to me is a dream that might come true.

The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.

In my latter years I've decided that there's too much to keep track of when you go into the lying game. That becomes stressful and it's not for me anymore.

For a moment, the lie becomes truth.

The great enemy of the truth is often not the lie ... but the myth.

Let me tell you the truth. The truth is what is, and what should be is a fantasy. A terrible, terrible lie that someone gave to the people long ago.

Truth does not do as much good in the world as its imitations do harm.

You can't really pretend something is rosier than it is and expect people to buy it.

Reality is easy. It's deception that's the hard work.

It's part of the general global hypnotism to accept lies as the new truth.

Why waste time trying to discover the truth, when you can so easily create it?

A great lie is like a great fish on dry land; it may fret and fling and make a frightful bother, but it cannot hurt you. You have only to keep still, and it will die of itself.

Great liars are also great magicians.

It's not mere extremism that makes folks at the fringes so troubling; it's extremism wedded to false beliefs. Humans have long been dupes, easily gulled by rumors and flat-out lies.

I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version.

When I create a false reality, I always try to create a plausible structure to help convince people.

All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie.

Second to agriculture, humbug is the biggest industry of our age.

An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie.

Errors, to be dangerous, must have a great deal of truth mingled with them. It is only from this alliance that they can ever obtain an extensive circulation.

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

People love to yammer on about things that aren't real.

No one is ever who they purport to be.