Kenneth L. Pike Quotes

One ought to have a good memory when he has told a lie.

It is quite as ignominious to allow oneself to be deceived as to deceive.

Most people who have told a lie think they got away with it … when in fact, they didn’t

A dishonest yes is a no to yourself.

When you stretch the truth, watch out for the snapback.

Our culture does not teach us this, but what happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas. If you cheat in Vegas, it comes right home with you. If you cheat in Vegas, you walk home as a cheater. You lie awake at a night a cheater. You cannot escape it.

When you fail to tell the truth, you are kept bound to the past in ways that devastate your soul.

He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.

No blame should attach to telling the truth. But it does, it does.

The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty.

Let none of us delude himself by supposing that honesty is always the best policy. It is not.

Once you start lying, you get kind of comfortable. You start believing it. Especially if you truly believe you didn't really cheat because you were doing what everybody else was doing.

Once in a while, when I was younger, I'd lie, then tell the truth, and I'd feel better.

The most ethical way to deal with an unethical situation would be to simply say: 'We did something wrong.' But nobody in a family like mine would ever respond like this.

Like many people, I have a fascination with lies and the people who tell them. I wouldn't say I've never told a lie, but I don't think I've ever told one without both assuming I would be found out and feeling absolutely rotten about it.

If I hear a lie in my life with my children, with my wife, my work, my audiences, I want to annihilate myself, vaporize myself and wipe myself off the face of the earth.

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.

If you spend a lot of time lying to people, you think a lot about what the truth means.

Time will inevitably uncover dishonesty and lies; history has no place for them.

We talk about honesty, but the reality is we have lots of human values, and they are not all compatible. We don't always tell the truth about everything, no matter what the consequences.

Better break your word than do worse in keeping it.

A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

I stopped living according to my core values. I knew what I was doing was wrong but thought only about myself and thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to.

With lies you may go ahead in the world, but you can never go back.

Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.