Joseph Conrad Quotes

I cannot stand dishonesty among people, the tendency to prevaricate.

It is my belief... that the truth is generally preferable to lies.

A lie is profanity. A lie is the worst thing in the world. Art is the ability to tell the truth.

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.

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

The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.

I'm not big on lying. I don't like that at all.

The truthful man is usually a liar.

I don't do much lying in real life because I don't get away with it.

Have you weaned yourself of your off-putting proclivity for not telling the truth/

We've all grown wary of being lied to online - let's face it, dudes are always exaggerating their heights - so trust is a hot commodity.

I don't lie very well!

I'm not a particularly good liar.

I am sincere, ma petite, even when I lie.

But here's the thing about being honest: All the liars HATE you for it, and most of the people in the world are liars. They lie to their bosses, they lie to their families, they lie to themselves, they lie so much they don't even know they're lying anymore. If you have the courage to be honest even a little bit all those people will hate you for it, because their lie is reflected in your honesty. Oscar Wilde wasn't kidding when he said, "If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you."

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.

Now you say you have to absolutely truthful. Sincerity is the main thing, and truthfulness is the main thing and don't lie to anybody ... and you'll get ahead. Brother you sure will. You'll get ahead right on that cycle of action, right toward zero! It's a trap not being able to prevaricate ... This makes life more colorful!

Truth is always consistent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out. It is always near at hand, and sits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before we are aware; whereas a lie is troublesome, and sets a man's invention upon the rack; and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.

The inability to lie is far from the love of truth.

If you're not gonna tell the truth, then why start talking?

The truth is a precious commodity. That's why I use it so sparingly.

Truth-telling frightens me. Lying confuses me.

As hypocrisy is said to be the highest compliment to virtue, the art of lying is the strongest acknowledgment of the force of truth.

He who does not lie does not know what truth is.

I'll tell you something that's completely true - you can, as a man, obtain everything you want with the truth. If you lie, first of all you've got to be a very good lying actor, which is tres difficile. And it's going to give you poison inside the body.