Martin Luther Quotes

If you tell a lie to make a person better, then that is not a sin.

Honesty is always good, except when it's better to lie.

There are times when lying is the most sacred of duties.

An injurious truth has no merit over an injurious lie. Neither should ever be uttered. The man who speaks an injurious truth, lest his soul be not saved if he do otherwise, should reflect that that sort of a soul is not strictly worth saving.

When treating with liars, even an honest man must lie.

I don’t like to lie – so there’d better be a good reason why I’m doing it.

Alanna didn't approve of lying, but in a pinch a lie was sometimes better than the truth.

There are worse things than a lie... I have found... that it may be well to choose one sin in order that another may be shunned.

Revolting means for good ends make the ends of themselves revolting.

A white lie is always pardonable. But he who tells the truth without compulsion merits no leniency.

When we tell little white lies, we become progressively color-blind. It is better to remain silent than to mislead.

It's okay to lie as long as you reach a higher truth doing it.

White lies always introduce others of a darker complexion.

Lying can never save us from another lie.

My dad once told me, he was like, 'The only time you should lie is when someone's holding a gun to your head and says 'Okay, lie or I'm going to shoot you.' And that really stuck with me.

When a majority could benefit only its enemies by telling the truth, history shows that honorable men often preferred to tell what is untrue.

An untruth must be spoken, where need requires. For whether men lie, or say true, it is with one and the same object. Men lie, because they think to gain by deceiving others; and speak the truth, because they expect to get something by their true speaking, and to be trusted afterwards in more important matters. Thus, though their conduct is so opposite, the end of both is alike. If there were no gain to be got, your true-speaking man would tell untruths as much as your liar, and your liar would tell the truth as much as your true-speaking man.

So telling a lie becomes a sin if you tell it to take advantage of a person, but if you tell a lie to do a good thing for him that is not a sin. Even God tells lies very often; you can see this throughout history.

There are people who think that honesty is always the best policy. This is a superstition. There are times when the appearance of it is worth six of it.

There are few reasons for telling the truth, but for lying the number is infinite.

What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of the good and for the Christian church ... a lie out of necessity, a useful lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be against God, he would accept them.

Sometimes it’s more noble to tell a small lie than to deliver a painful truth.

If I told you, you might be forced to lie about it. Not that you aren't really good at it, but why put an old man in that position?

One must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one can't do anything about them.

There were lies we told to save ourselves, and then there were lies we told to rescue others. What counted more, the mistruth, or the greater good?