A collection of quotes on the topic of lying, other, time, timing.
“Lying is the greatest of all sins.”
“When lying to someone, look him straight in the eye.”
City Aphorisms, Ninth Selection (1992)
“How many, tired of lying, commit suicide into any truth.”
Cuántos, cansados de mentir, se suicidan en cualquier verdad.
Voces (1943)
“Lying stimulates one's imagination and ingenuity.”
Un peu de soleil dans l'eau froide (1969, Sunlight on Cold Water, translated 1971)
“Truth here makes Falsehood torment lying tongues.”
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), X Studies and Sketches for Pictures and Decorations
“Lying is done with words, and also with silence.”
Source: Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying
“How do you know if a demon is lying? His lips are moving.”
Source: Succubus Blues
Variant: With every part you act, there must be a little of yourself in it. If there isn't, it's not acting. It's lying.
From interview with Anshul Chaturvedi
My Twisted World (2014), Thoughts at 14
Out of the Woods, written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff
Song lyrics, 1989 (2014)
B-Side Magazine, October/November 1994
From Interviews
Responding http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tiyezo1fLRs to Senator José Agripino Maia - former member of ARENA, ruling party of the military dictatorship - in a Senate hearing, May 7. He suggested that, for having lied when she was interrogated by the political police, she could also have been lying about the leak of data of Fernando Henrique Cardoso's personal expenditures.
2008
to Michael Azerrad in an interview from 1992 or 1993, in Kurt Cobain: About a Son
Interviews (1989-1994), Video
Source: A Sincere Admonition to All Christians to Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion (1522), p. 60
referring to his colleagues in the European Council
Jean-Claude Juncker, quoted by Dirk Von Kock 'Die Brüsseler Republik' http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-15317086.html in Der Spiegel (2000), then by Florian Eder 'Junckers Tricks in den langen Brüsseler Nächten' http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article112948572/Junckers-Tricks-in-den-langen-Bruesseler-Naechten.html in Die Welt (2012).
1999
“Maintaining silence about a dirty truth is another way of lying, a common practice in high places.”
2 MEDIA AND CULTURE, The Invisible Bloodbaths, p. 132
Dirty truths (1996), first edition
“Alanna didn't approve of lying, but in a pinch a lie was sometimes better than the truth.”
Source: Alanna: The First Adventure
Source: All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays
"Benefit Of Clergy: Some Notes On Salvador Dalí," Dickens, Dali & Others: Studies in Popular Culture (1944) http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/dali/english/e_dali
[ Link to tweet https://twitter.com/dril/status/757914951868485632]
Tweets by year, 2016
“After All I've Done For you, you're lying. Wouldn't it be nice to tell the truth?”
Shot Through The Heart
Music, Bon Jovi (1984)
Source: Down and out in Paris and London (1933), Ch. 21; on the state of the kitchen at the newly opened Auberge.
"The Red Association" http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bakunin/works/writings/ch05.htm (1870)
When she was attacked by a serious fever epidemic which had engulfed Japan in 1917 and this occult experience was widely publicized after the epidemic had abated, quoted in "Japan (1916-20)", also in “Yogi-doctors” and Occult Healing Arts:Towards a Post-colonial Anthropology of Holistic Therapeutics at Sri Aurobindo Ashram http://www.isa-sociology.org/publ/E-symposium/E-symposium-vol-1-1-2011/EBul-Mar-11-Paranjape.pdf., p. 8
Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton : The Illustrated London News, 1905-1907 (1986), p. 191
Bk. II, ch. 1.
The History of Henry Esmond (1852)
Source: The History of Henry Esmond, Esq.
Source: The Power and the Glory
“Lady Madonna lying on the bed
Listen to the music playing in your head.”
The Decay of Lying (1889)
“One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.”
Source: Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle
“Human pride is not worthwhile; there is always something lying in wait to take the wind out of it.”
Source: 1910s, The Problems of Philosophy (1912)
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), X Studies and Sketches for Pictures and Decorations
1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
“When I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais lying in my head.”
Said during her final illness, referring to England's loss of Calais to France.
Raphael Holinshed, The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, vol. III, page 1160 (1587).
Second Dialogue; translated by Judith R. Bush, Christopher Kelly, Roger D. Masters
Dialogues: Rousseau Judge of Jean-Jacques (published 1782)
Le duc imita bientôt avec Bande-au-ciel la petite infamie de son ancien ami et il paria, quoique le vit fût énorme, d'avaler trois bouteilles de vin de sens froid pendant qu'on l'enculerait.
The First Day
The 120 Days of Sodom (1785)
Speech in Baltimore (19 February 1994), quoted in New York Times (28 February 1994) "Islamic Figure In New Tirade Against Jews"
“I feel sorry for players who are always lying awake at night, brooding over their games.”
ChessBase.com - Magnus Carlsen on his chess career, 15 March 2010 http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6187
<p>Original: E a suprema glória disto tudo, meu amor, é pensar que talvez isto não seja verdade, nem eu o creia verdadeiro.</p><p>E quando a mentira comece a dar-nos prazer, falemos a verdade para lhe mentirmos.</p>
Ibid., p. 280
The Book of Disquiet
Variant translation: The constant fluttering around the single flame of vanity is so much the rule and the law that almost nothing is more incomprehensible than how an honest and pure urge for truth could make its appearance among men.
On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense (1873)
It's Kelly Rowland vs. Freddy and Jason! http://ew.com/article/2003/08/14/its-kelly-rowland-vs-freddy-and-jason/ (August 14, 2003)
Part 2.5 Chapter III. Of the old and new systems of government
1790s, Rights of Man, Part 2 (1792)
Letter to Mrs. F. G. Whitmore (February 7, 1907)
Picture to Burn, written by Taylor Swift and Liz Rose.
Song lyrics, Taylor Swift (2006)
c. 1946, p. 63-64
Attributed in posthumous publications, Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979)
<span class="plainlinks"> In Midnight Street http://www.prachyareview.com/poems-by-suman-pokhrel/</span>
From Poetry
Pausing and addressing to a fallen statue of Xerxes the Great
Plutarch. The age of Alexander: nine Greek lives. Penguin, 1977. p. 294 http://books.google.com/books?ei=0bC3T9ejHcPQsgarjcHWBw&id=eFAJAQAAIAAJ&q=%22set+you+up+again+because+of+your+magnanimity+and+your+virtues+in+other+respects%22#search_anchor
Source: Death with Interruptions (2005), p. 172
Radio Interview, March 10 1999 http://www.geocities.jp/bobbby_b/mp3/F_05_3.MP3
1990s
Our Sexual Ethics http://www.utilitarian.org/texts/oursexethics.html (1936)
1930s
Quote of Escher, from his essay on Tessellation 1957; as cited by Tony Thomas, in 'The Strange Worlds of M C Escher' http://www.escapeintolife.com/essays/the-strange-worlds-of-m-c-escher/
1950's
Responding to Republican criticism of his energy policy (5 August 2008) http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0808/05/sitroom.03.html
2008
Jace to Alec, pg. 138
The Mortal Instruments, City of Glass (2009)
On the Decay of the Art of Lying, published in The Stolen White Elephant: Etc, Pages 220-221 http://books.google.com/books?id=rTv19WvJto4C&q=%22The+highest%22+%22perfection+of+politeness+is+only+a+beautiful+edifice+built+from+the+base+to+the+dome+of+graceful+and+gilded+forms+of+charitable+and+unselfish+lying%22&pg=PA221#v=onepage (1882)
General Relation of the Concept System of Thesis and Antithesis
Gesammelte Mathematische Werke (1876)
Apologia Pro Vita Sua [A defense of one's own life] (1864)
Les liens entre un être et nous n'existent que dans notre pensée. La mémoire en s'affaiblissant les relâche, et, malgré l'illusion dont nous voudrions être dupes et dont, par amour, par amitié, par politesse, par respect humain, par devoir, nous dupons les autres, nous existons seuls. L'homme est l'être qui ne peut sortir de soi, qui ne connaît les autres qu'en soi, et, en disant le contraire, ment.
Source: In Search of Lost Time, Remembrance of Things Past (1913-1927), Vol. VI: The Sweet Cheat Gone (1925), Ch. I: "Grief and Oblivion"
<p>Sou um guardador de rebanhos.
O rebanho é os meus pensamentos
E os meus pensamentos são todos sensações.
Penso com os olhos e com os ouvidos
E com as mãos e os pés
E com o nariz e a boca.
Pensar uma flor é vê-la e cheirá-la
E comer um fruto é saber-lhe o sentido.</p><p>Por isso quando num dia de calor
Me sinto triste de gozá-lo tanto,
E me deito ao comprido na erva,
E fecho os olhos quentes,
Sinto todo o meu corpo deitado na realidade,
Sei a verdade e sou feliz.</p>
Alberto Caeiro (heteronym), O Guardador de Rebanhos ("The Keeper of Sheep"), IX — in A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe, trans. Richard Zenith (Penguin, 2006)
Mr. Muhammad teaches that as soon as we separate from the white man, we will learn that we can do without the white man just as he can do without us. The white man knows that once black men get off to themselves and learn they can do for themselves, the black man's full potential will explode and he will surpass the white man.
Playboy interview, regarding the ambition of the Black Muslims
Attributed
1860s, Allow the humblest man an equal chance (1860)
Context: If I saw a venomous snake crawling in the road, any man would say I might seize the nearest stick and kill it; but if I found that snake in bed with my children, that would be another question. I might hurt the children more than the snake, and it might bite them. Much more if I found it in bed with my neighbor's children, and I had bound myself by a solemn compact not to meddle with his children under any circumstances, it would become me to let that particular mode of getting rid of the gentleman alone. But if there was a bed newly made up, to which the children were to be taken, and it was proposed to take a batch of young snakes and put them there with them, I take it no man would say there was any question how I ought to decide!
Context: If I saw a venomous snake crawling in the road, any man would say I might seize the nearest stick and kill it; but if I found that snake in bed with my children, that would be another question. I might hurt the children more than the snake, and it might bite them. Much more if I found it in bed with my neighbor's children, and I had bound myself by a solemn compact not to meddle with his children under any circumstances, it would become me to let that particular mode of getting rid of the gentleman alone. But if there was a bed newly made up, to which the children were to be taken, and it was proposed to take a batch of young snakes and put them there with them, I take it no man would say there was any question how I ought to decide! That is just the case! The new Territories are the newly made bed to which our children are to go, and it lies with the nation to say whether they shall have snakes mixed up with them or not. It does not seem as if there could be much hesitation what our policy should be!
Source: 1920s, Review of The Meaning of Meaning (1926), p. 114
Ch. 18 (Martin Palmer/Elizabeth Breuily, Penguin Publishing 1996)
Source: Psychology and Alchemy (1952), p. 132
“…man, this ruler over general evil,
With a perfidious heart, with a lying tongue…”
"The Cemetery" (1830)
Poems
The Confession (c. 452?)
Context: So I hope that I did as I ought, but I do not trust myself as long as I am in this mortal body, for he is strong who strives daily to turn me away from the faith and true holiness to which I aspire until the end of my life for Christ my Lord, but the hostile flesh is always dragging one down to death, that is, to unlawful attractions. And I know in part why I did not lead a perfect life like other believers, but I confess to my Lord and do not blush in his sight, because I am not lying; from the time when I came to know him in my youth, the love of God and fear of him increased in me, and right up until now, by God's favour, I have kept the faith.
1940s, To Every Briton (1940)
Context: This war has descended upon mankind as a curse and a warning. It is a curse inasmuch as it is brutalizing man on a scale hitherto unknown. All distinctions between combatants and noncombatants have been abolished. No one and nothing is to be spared. Lying has been reduced to an art. Britain was to defend small nationalities. One by one they have vanished, at least for the time being. It is also a warning. It is a warning that, if nobody reads the writing on the wall, man will be reduced to the state of the beast, whom he is shaming by his manners. I read the writing when the hostilities broke out. But I had not the courage to say the word. God has given me the courage to say it before it is too late.
Sec. 131
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)
Context: Lying... is so ill a quality, and the mother of so many ill ones that spawn from it, and take shelter under it, that a child should be brought up in the greatest abhorrence of it imaginable. It should be always spoke of before him with the utmost detestation, as a quality so wholly inconsistent with the name and character of a gentleman, that no body of any credit can bear the imputation of a lie; a mark that is judg'd in utmost disgrace, which debases a man to the lowest degree of a shameful meanness, and ranks him with the most contemptible part of mankind and the abhorred rascality; and is not to be endured in any one who would converse with people of condition, or have any esteem or reputation in the world.
“Who says: 'Here reigns freedom' is lying, because freedom doesn't reign.””
“Anyone who claimed that old age had brought them patience was either lying or senile.”
“Even if I were lying on the sun itself, I would be freezing there without you. (Zarek)”
Source: Dance with the Devil
“The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.”
“I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all.”
Source: The Dharma Bums (1958)
Context: I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all. The woods do that to you, they always look familiar, long lost, like the face of a long-dead relative, like an old dream, like a piece of forgotten song drifting across the water, most of all like golden eternities of past childhood or past manhood and all the living and the dying and the heartbreak that went on a million years ago and the clouds as they pass overhead seem to testify (by their own lonesome familiarity) to this feeling. Ecstacy, even, I felt, with flashes of sudden remembrance, and feeling sweaty and drowsy I felt like sleeping and dreaming in the grass.
Variant: I knew then that I hadn't stopped believing in God. I'd just stopped believing God cared. There might be a God, Clary, and there might not, but I don't think it matters. Either way we're on our own.
Source: City of Bones
“I most certainly can deny it. Of course, if I did, I'd be lying." Mairelon”
Source: Magician's Ward
