Mark Twain Quotes

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.

Lying is a crime the least liable to variation in its definitions. A child will upon the slightest temptation tell an untruth as readily as the truth. That is, as soon as he can suspect that it will be to his advantage; and the dread that he afterward has of telling a lie is acquired principally by his being threatened, punished, and terrified by those who detect him in it, till at length, a number of painful impressions are annexed to the telling of an untruth, and he comes even to shudder at the thought of it.

True education seeks to make men and women not only good mathematicians, proficient linguists, profound scientists, or brilliant literary lights, but also honest men and women with virtue, temperance, and brotherly love.

We cannot teach children the danger of telling lies to men without realising, on the man's part, the danger of telling lies to children. A single untruth on the part of the master will destroy the results of his education.

Above all, I would teach him to tell the truth Truth-telling, I have found, is the key to responsible citizenship. The thousands of criminals I have seen in 40 years of law enforcement have had one thing in common: Every single one was a liar.

I can't tell a lie - not even when I hear one.

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.

Better a child should be ignorant of a thousand truths than have consecrated in its heart a single lie.

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.

Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.

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

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.

There are 869 different forms of lying, but only one of them has been squarely forbidden. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

When one of your children tells a lie, be honest with him; tell him that you have told hundreds of them yourself. Tell him it is not the best way; that you have tried it. Tell him as the man did in Maine when his boy left home: "John, honesty is the best policy; I have tried both."

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

Everyone tells tiny lies, what's important really is the size.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it the second time.

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.

If you tell a lie, always rehearse it. If it don't sound good to you, it won't sound good to anybody.

There is so much falsehood both at home and at school. At home one must not speak, and at school we have to stand and tell lies to the children.

Lies were lethal, however honourable the intentions of the liar. They deprived people of the opportunity to know the basic facts of their own lives.

If I have one wish which is greater than another, it is, if I had the power, to make men do right; to make them stop their swearing, their lying, their deceiving, to stop trying to injure the innocent, and begin to be honest and upright in all their dealings with one another and honor the name of the Deity.