Better to be slapped with the truth than to be kissed with a lie.

And then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies’ plan. By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger.

Lie to a liar, for lies are his coin; steal from a thief, for that is easy; lay a trap for a trickster and catch him at first attempt, but beware of an honest man.

If you want to be successful, you must respect one rule: never lie to yourself.

People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I've learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one's reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one's master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person's view requires to be faked.

The quick pain of truth can pass away, but the slow eating agony of a lie is never lost.

When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.

The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.

Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.

The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.

The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance.

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.