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115 Quotes About Lies + 5 Reasons Why People Lie

Lying can be an important protective mechanism. However, liars are often out for their own interests and act selfishly. When a lie is exposed, it is not only hurtful, but also breaks trust. Here you will find thought-provoking quotes and sayings about lying.

Are you looking for sayings about lying? Here you will find them: We have compiled sayings for different situations in eight different categories.

150 Quotes About Lying and Liars

150 Quotes About Lying and Liars

Have you been caught lying and need a charming line to justify yourself? Have you been lied to and want to express your disappointment?

Or maybe you’re just interested in what people have to say about lying. Whatever you are looking for, you will find the right saying here. Send them for example to friends or use them for Instagram.

Sad Quotes About Lies and Disappointment

Sad Quotes About Lies and Disappointment

Sayings about being lied to and the disappointment that comes with a lie can be found here. For example, send it to someone who has disappointed you very much. If you can’t find the right words yourself, these sayings will help you.

  1. Even if people are not inwardly involved in what they say, one must not necessarily conclude from this that they do not lie; for there are people who lie simply in order to lie.
    (Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, 1623-1662)
  2. There are people who cheat, but who cannot lie.
    (Alfred de Musset, French writer, 1810-1857)
  3. Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
    (Alexander Pope, English poet, 1688-1744)
  4. The lie is a very sad substitute for truth, but it is the only one that has been discovered to date.
    (Elbert Hubbard, American writer, 1856-1915)
  5. It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
    (William Blake, English poet, 1757-1827)
  6. If I am to meet with a disappointment, the sooner I know it, the more of life I shall have to wear it off.
    (Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father of the United States, 1743-1826)
  7. Expectation is the root of all heartache.
    (William Shakespeare, English playwright, 1564-1616)

Quotes that Say “Don’t Lie to Me”

Quotes that Say “Don’t Lie to Me”

If you’ve ever been lied to while knowing the truth? Then these following quotes will be excellent rebuttals that will ensure it won’t happen again. Stand up for yourself in a clever, insightful way.

  1. In thy foul throat thou liest.
    (William Shakespeare, English playwright, 1564-1616)
  2. A lie is like a snow-ball; the longer it is rolled, the larger it is.
    (Martin Luther, German Augustinian monk, 1483-1546)
  3. Better to be slapped with the truth than kissed with a lie.
    (Unknown)
  4. False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
    (William Shakespeare)
  5. Eloquent lips are unsuited to a godless fool – how much worse lying lips to a ruler!
    (Proverbs 17,7)
  6. Even small lies can create cracks.
    (Unknown)
  7. With every lie you tell me, you risk losing me.
    (Unknown)
  8. Don’t lie to me. And more importantly, don’t lie to others about me.
    (Unknown)
  9. Liars have short legs because they are ticked off.
    (Unknown)
  10. I want to at least be allowed to decide if your lie hurts me.
    (Unknown)

Quotes About Hating Liars

Quotes About Hating Liars

The truth is becoming harder and harder to discern these days, and with the sheer number of sources that are increasingly available, this likely won’t change anytime soon. If the liars out there boil your blood, these quotes are sure to be relatable.

  1. A fortune made by people who tell lies amounts to nothing and leads to death.
    (Proverbs 19:9)
  2. Lying is the same as alcoholism. Liars prevaricate even on their deathbed.
    (Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Russian dramatist, 1860-1904)
  3. What can God do for a liar who refuses to repent? Can the Lord save him? He can’t claim salvation. Baptizing him in water will not settle the trouble unless you keep him under.
    (J. Golden Kimball, Leader of the LDS Church, 1853-1938)
  4. I love truth and wish to have it always spoken to me: I hate a liar.
    (Plautus, Roman poet, 254-184 B.C.)
  5. You’re not sorry you did it, you’re sorry I found out.
    (Unknown)
  6. I hate liars, once you lie to me I never trust you again.
    (Unknown)
  7. We live in a world that is built on promises constructed by liars.
    (Unknown)
  8. Don’t talk with a mouth full of lies. It’s hard to understand what you are saying.
    (Unknown)

Quotes About Lying in a Relationship and Friendship

Quotes About Lying in a Relationship and Friendship

Do you want to address the theme of lying in friendships or love? Then you will find the appropriate quotes here.

  1. So this is not true friendship, that when one does not want to hear the truth, the other is ready to lie.
    (Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator and statesman, 106-43 B.C.)
  2. I’d rather hurt the friend by the truth than the friendship by lying.
    (Alois Essigmann, Austrian writer, 1878-1937)
  3. Do not spread lies about your brother, nor about your friend.
    (Old Testament. Jesus Sirach 7,12)
  4. A single lie in a relationship makes one question every truth ever there was in it.
    (Unknown)
  5. Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to the vice of lying.
    (William Shakespeare, English playwright, 1564-1616)
  6. I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.
    (Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, 1844-1900)
  7. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
    (Mark Twain, American writer, 1835-1910)
  8. Lying to the one who loves you is telling them that you don’t deem them worthy of your truth
    (Unknown)
  9. Of all the lies I’ve heard, ‘I love you’ was my favorite.
    (Unknown)
  10. Lying to your lover is one way of saying that you want to quit.
    (Unknown)

Quotes About Men and Women telling Lies

Quotes About Men and Women telling Lies

Men are from mars, and women are from venus, as we’re told. How do we tell lies differently in the varying genders, and for what reasons? Quotes like these help us understand and explain how men and women tell lies.

  1. Only women and doctors know how necessary and how helpful lies are to men.
    (Anatole France, French writer, 1844-1924)
  2. The most common sort of lie is that by which a man deceives himself: the deception of others is a relatively rare offense.
    (Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, 1844-1900)
  3. The hardest tumble a man can take is to fall over his own bluff.
    (Ambrose Bierce, American short story writer, 1842-1914)
  4. By a lie, a man… annihilates his dignity as a man.
    (Immanuel Kant, German philosopher, 1724-1804)
  5. The Law is a lie, and through it men lie most shamelessly.
    (Jack London, American writer, 1876-1916)
  6. Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
    (Oscar Wilde, Irish poet, 1854-1900)
  7. A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.
    (Mark Twain, American writer, 1835-1910)

Quotes About Lies and Karma

Quotes About Lies and Karma

The karmic consequences of lying are not to be dismissed, and you’ll read why in these timeless sayings.
If you are honest with yourself and your friends, you will not suffer the consequences of karma. Therefore, be careful with what you say.

  1. You may have burned me with your lies, but karma is about to set you on fire.
    (Unknown)
  2. One who feels no shame at telling a deliberate lie has as much of a contemplative in them as this empty bowl.
    (Buddha, founder of Buddhism, 560 B.C.-483 B.C.)
  3. Delusions, errors, and lies are like huge, gaudy vessels, the rafters of which are rotten and worm-eaten, and those who embark in them are fated to be shipwrecked.
    (Buddha)
  4. Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
    (Buddha)
  5. Silence the angry man with love. Silence the ill-natured man with kindness. Silence the miser with generosity. Silence the liar with truth.
    (Buddha)

Quotes About Living a Lie

Quotes About Living a Lie

This category covers what happens to someone that lives their life in lies, and how to rise above it. A noble house demands a true foundation.

  1. The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.
    (Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, 1844-1900)
  2. When regard for truth has been broken down or even slightly weakened, all things will remain doubtful.
    (Aurelius Augustinus, Roman bishop, 354-430 A.D.)
  3. He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it the second time.
    (Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father of the United States, 1743-1826)
  4. People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.
    (Otto von Bismarck, German politician, 1815-1898)
  5. There is a battle of two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, lies, inferiority and ego. The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth. The wolf that wins? The one you feed.
    (American Indian Proverb)
  6. There are three types of lies – lies, damn lies, and statistics.
    (Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman, 1804-1881)
  7. Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.
    (Vincent de Paul, French priest, 1581-1660)

Quotes About Lies and Truth

Quotes About Lies and Truth

The absence of truth in a lie seems obvious, and yet a lie cannot be recognized as such without the truth. How lies and truth are connected, where they contradict each other, and in what ways they appear together, can be clarified with these sayings.

  1. The bag of truth contained in many lies is what makes it terrible.
    (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Moravian-Austrian writer, 1830-1916)
  2. He who cannot lie does not know what truth is.
    (Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, 1844-1900)
  3. And what is basically the lie, but only the masked truth?
    (George Gordon Byron, British poet, 1788-1824)
  4. A lie has already walked around the earth three times before the truth puts on its shoes.
    (Mark Twain, American writer, 1835-1910)
  5. A truth told in bad faith beats all the lies that can be invented.
    (William Blake, English poet, 1757-1827)
  6. Only a hair separates the truth from the lie.
    (Omar Khayyam, Persian mathematician, 1048-1131)
  7. Often the lie shows more clearly than the truth what is going on in a person.
    (Maxim Gorky, Russian writer, 1868-1936)
  8. The truth is told when one is too lazy to lie.
    (Paul Nikolaus Cossman, German writer, 1869-1942)
  9. The poet who can lie wisely, willingly; he alone can speak truth.
    (Friedrich Neitzsche)
  10. One does not need to twist and turn a thing to look at it from the side of the lie or the truth. Everything is a hundred times true and a hundred times false. The subjective perspective is everything.
    (Paul Richard Luck, German writer, 1880-1940)
  11. Just as there are seldom compliments without all lies, so there are seldom insults without all truth.
    (Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German poet, 1729-1781)
  12. Most of our truths today have such short legs that they might just as well be lies.
    (Egon Friedell, Austrian writer, 1878-1938)
  13. Perhaps I can find the truth by comparing lies.
    (Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary, 1879-1949)

Justifying Quotes About Lies

Justifying Quotes About Lies

You don’t grow a long nose like Pinocchio when you lie. However, you’d better have one of the following sayings ready before you get caught anyway.

  1. Lying and writing are arts.
    (Oscar Wilde, Irish poet, 1854-1900)
  2. Truth is a beautiful thing, no doubt; but so are lies
    (Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, 1803-1882)
  3. Any fool can tell the truth, but only a comparatively intelligent one can lie well.
    (Samuel Butler, English poet, 1612-1680)
  4. How useful the art of lying is, at the right time.
    (Pierre Corneille, French author, 1606-1684)
  5. Lying wittily is the non plus ultra of good tone these days.
    (Unknown)
  6. The best must lie sometimes, sometimes he does it with pleasure.
    (Wilhelm Busch, German poet, 1832-1908)
  7. I don’t mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.
    (Samuel Butler, English writer, 1835-1902)
  8. The best liar is he who gets the farthest with the fewest lies.
    (Samuel Butler)
  9. Truths communicated in bad faith are worse than lies.
    (William Blake, English poet, 1757-1827)
  10. To lie with spirit is an art; to be true is to agree with nature.
    (Oscar Wilde, Irish poet, 1854-1900)
  11. Lies, Lies! Give us lies! Oh, truth is so raw! Truth gives us no pleasure, lies make us fat and glad!
    (Christian Morgenstern, German poet, 1871-1914)

Condemnatory Sayings About Lies

Condemnatory Sayings About Lies

If you want to make it clear that lying is a no-go for you, and it’s best never to lie to you, you’ll find the right saying in this category.

  1. I know of nothing more vicious, more base, than lying. It is either a product of malice, cowardice, or vanity.
    (Philip Dormer Stanhope, British poet, 1694-1773)
  2. Lies are low and loudmouthed.
    (Luc de Clapiers, French philosopher, 1715-1747)
  3. A lie is the beginning of all evil.
    (Huldrych Zwingli, Swiss theologian, 1484-1531)
  4. Nothing breaks the heart, courage, and strength more quickly than a lie; a lie is the most devilish, because it is the most cowardly vice.
    (Ernst Moritz Arndt, German writer, 1769-1860)
  5. Doom to him who spins lies to hide unworthy deeds behind them!
    (Sophocles, Greek poet, 496-406 B.C.)
  6. To say to one’s enemies something that is not true, and to lie in order to discredit them, is to do oneself an injustice and to give them a great preponderance.
    (Jean de La Bruyère, French philosopher, 1645-1696)
  7. Farewell, you cowardly lies! You were never my choice.
    (Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer, 1791-1872)
  8. He who is resourceful enough to make a lie believable may rather tell the truth outright.
    (Oscar Wilde, Irish poet, 1854-1900)
  9. False modesty is the most chic of all lies.
    (Nicolas Chamfort, French moralist, 1741-1794)
  10. He who lies once is not believed, even if he speaks the truth.
    (German proverb)
  11. We also know that happiness which we owe to lies is not true happiness […] (Heinrich Heine, German poet, 1797-1856)

Interesting Quotes About Lying and Humanity

Interesting Quotes About Lying and Humanity

Here you can find sayings about what society thinks are the reasons for lying and how mankind deals with these lies.

  1. People are all of such a nature that they would rather hear a lie than a rejection.
    (Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator and statesman, 106-43 B.C.)
  2. I love the truth. I think mankind needs it, but surely it needs even more the lie, which flatters it, gives it comfort, and gives it endless hope. Without lies it would perish from despair and boredom.
    (Anatole France, French storyteller and critic, 1844-1924)
  3. If I cannot lie, I cannot be a statesman.
    (Otto von Bismarck, German politician, 1815-1898)
  4. Every society is nothing but a big picnic of white lies. One of the lies is called: Every man has his destiny. That is not true, society is their destiny!
    (Moritz Gottlieb Saphir, Austrian writer, 1795-1858)
  5. Little children often lie from lack of memory.
    (August Strindberg, Swedish writer, 1849-1912)
  6. The truth is too hard for us. We often lie because we mean well.
    (Paul Keller, German writer, 1873-1932)
  7. We often tell ourselves our own lies in order not to have to punish ourselves for lying, and we deceive ourselves in order to deceive others.
    (Luc de Clapiers, French philosopher, 1715-1747)
  8. Of all the lies in the world, sometimes one’s own fears are the worst.
    (Rudyard Kipling, British poet and children’s author, 1865-1936)
  9. As our bodies are wrapped in garments, so our minds are wrapped in lies. Our speech, our actions, our whole being is full of lies; and it is only through this covering that one can sometimes guess our true sentiments, as through the garments one can guess the shape of the body.
    (Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher, 1788-1860)
  10. A good conscience laughs at the lies of rumor.
    (Publius Ovidius Naso, Ancient Roman poet, 43 B.C-17 A.D.) 
  11. No man’s memory is so good that he could lie successfully all the time.
    (Abraham Lincoln, American president, 1809-1865)
  12. Man is cold as ice to truths, but he is fire to lies.
    (August Lafontaine, German writer, 1758-1831)
  13. Our educators warn us first against lies, then against truths.
    (Emanuel Wertheimer, German-austrian aphorist, 1846-1916)
  14. Some are so prone to exaggeration that they cannot tell the truth without lying.
    (Josh Billings, American comedian, 1818-1885) 

Profound Quotes About Lies to Think About

Profound Quotes About Lies to Think About

In this paragraph you will find meaningful quotes about lies that should get you thinking. The sayings are very wise and clever and can help you when you can’t find the right words yourself. Send them to someone who has lied to you and you want to tell them how you feel about it.

  1. Here on Earth men deceive themselves and are deceived; and they are more unfortunate if they themselves lie in order to deceive, than if trusting in liars leads them into error.
    (Aurelius Augustinus, Roman bishop, 354-430 A.D.) 
  2. He who begins by lying, ends by cheating.
    (Proverb)
  3. The liar hopes in vain for good faith.
    (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, 1749-1832)
  4. The resolute renunciation of the lie provides us with an effective weapon against all ramifications of evil, for the lie is indispensable to wickedness.
    (Adolf Schlatter, Swiss theologian, 1852-1938)
  5. In the language one speaks the worst, one can lie the least.
    (Christian Friedrich Hebbel, German Playwright, 1813-1863)
  6. It is not the lies, but the very fine false remarks that stop [the] purification of truth.
    (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German naturalist, 1742-1799)
  7. To submit is to lie.
    (Erich Mühsam, German writer, 1878-1934)
  8. The lie is made the world order.
    (Franz Kafka, German-language writer, 1883-1924)
  9. Lying is a vice when it causes harm, but a virtue when it is useful.
    (Voltaire, French Enlightenment writer, 1694-1778)
  10. Lies have short legs.
    (German proverb)
  11. He who lies once must often get used to lying; for it takes seven lies to make one beautiful.(Friedrich Rückert, German poet, 1788-1866)

Interesting Facts About Lies

Interesting Facts About Lies

A lie is defined as an untruthful assertion or statement that is presented to the other person as true. False statements and concealment are also considered lies. How a lie is defined and what forms of lies are common in our society, you will learn here.

Here you will find honesty quotes for different occasions.

Definition and Terminology

Unlike honesty, which also exists in deeds and actions, lying depends on language. Without language, there is no lie. It does not matter in which form the language is communicated because, of course, it is possible to put a lie in writing.

In communication, you can distinguish between a social lie, a white lie, purposeful lying, intentional lying, compulsive lying, and excuses.

While a deliberate lie is intended to serve one’s own advantage, a social lie refers to a circumstance in which the untruth is told for the benefit of the person being lied to. In social lies, the aim is often to achieve harmonious coexistence.

Did You Know?

Animals can lie, too. In addition to camouflage, warning, and mimicry, which is not considered conscious behavior, there are certain birds and mammals that purposefully mislead their enemies.

For example, there are female birds that fake a broken wing to distract from their nest, and monkeys that give a fake cry for help in order to feast on someone else’s food.

Lying as a Disease

Compulsive lying, or pathological lying, was long considered an independent clinical picture. In this case, the liar exaggerates his or her stories or even presents them grotesquely. Even after the lie has been clarified, the lying person assumes that what has been said is the truth.

Meanwhile, pathological lying is considered to be one of the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder rather than a disease in its own right.

Reasons Why People Lie

Reasons Why People Lie

Some people lie because they are empathetic and do not want to hurt their counterpart in any way.
Because sometimes a lie protects us from feeling small and insignificant or thinking badly about ourselves.

Lying is considered a negative trait and has a bad reputation. However, is every lie really bad? Why not all lies are to be devalued and why we humans lie, you will learn here.

Exceeding Your Own Merit

Most people lie for their own benefit. With lies of this kind, people want to distinguish themselves. This involves embellishing information about a job and salary, for example, or other prestigious labels in order to arouse admiration or even envy.

However, privacy protection is also one of the self-serving reasons why people fib. In the case of very personal questions from employers or landlords, for example regarding pregnancy or sexual orientation, it is even legal to lie.

Denying Mistakes

When we do something wrong, either on purpose or by accident, we tend to lie. You couldn’t keep an appointment on time because you left too late. You tell your date that the train was late.

Instead of admitting that you lost track of time, you shift the responsibility away from yourself and invent an apparently logical and comprehensible story that circumvents your mistake.

Avoiding Conflict

Avoiding Conflict

Children usually lie when they want to avert the anger of their parents, thus avoiding conflicts. Something breaks or the bicycle helmet was left at home on purpose.

Very quickly, however, the child invents reasons why he or she is not to blame for daddy’s favorite cup being broken. The same applies to the bicycle helmet, which was of course unintentionally forgotten and not intentionally left lying around.

One Lie Follows the Next

One lie is seldom enough to credibly present an untruth as true. It is the classic effect: what starts with a small lie often ends in a big lie construct.

So, to prevent your first lie from being exposed as such, you embellish the story more and more to make it more believable, your actual lie is maintained with the additional leis.

Courtesy and Loyalty

The truth is not always polite, let alone tactful. A large part of the lies we tell in this way serves the interest of our counterpart. This is so insofar as this lie is seen as a form of politeness. After all, it saves suffering and worry, and insults can be avoided.

Occasionally, we tell lies out of loyalty to our loved ones by concealing personal information or feigning cluelessness about certain facts. The lie is formulated out of loyalty to protect the person in question.

Since politeness and loyalty are gladly and often rewarded, these “white lies” are likely to evoke a positive response from the person in question. Regardless of whether this was intended by the person telling the lie or not.

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