
“Lie until even you believe it - that's the real secret of lying”
Source: White Cat
Observation made privately, quoted by Time journalist Michael Kramer, The Case for Skepticism http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956604,00.html Time, (26 December 1988), in the context of doubts about PLO sincerity in hinting about recognition of Israel.
1980s
“Lie until even you believe it - that's the real secret of lying”
Source: White Cat
“If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? Isn't love hard to believe?”
Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 99, p. 330
Compare sourced quote set forth above: "The English follow the principle that when one lies, it should be a big lie, and one should stick to it."
Attributed to Goebbels in Publications Relating to Various Aspects of Communism http://books.google.com/books?id=iLAnAQAAMAAJ&q=%22If+you+repeat+a+lie+often+enough,+people+will+believe+it.%22&dq=%22If+you+repeat+a+lie+often+enough,+people+will+believe+it.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=U4gPUvObG4qMyQHlhYAw&ved=0CGQQ6AEwCQ (1946), by United States Congress, House Committee on Un-American Activities. No reliable source has been located, and this is probably simply a further variation of the Big Lie idea.
Variants:
If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.
If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
If you repeat a lie long enough, it becomes truth.
If you repeat a lie many times, people are bound to start believing it.
Attributed in The Sack of Rome (2006) by Alexander Stille, p. 14, and also attributed in A World Without Walls: Freedom, Development, Free Trade and Global Governance (2003) by Mike Moore, p. 63.
Misattributed
“If you don't believe in the innate unreasonableness of human beings, just try raising children.”
1980s–1990s, Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays (1999)
To John Dean in April 1973 http://books.google.com/?id=JpRAAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22If+you+are+going+to+lie+you+go+to+jail+for+the+lie+rather+than+the+crime+So+believe+me+don't+ever+lie%22&pg=PA42. Dean was due to testify before the Senate Watergate Committee, which he did on 25 June 1973.
1970s
“Would you believe in what you believe in if you were the only one who believed it?”
Source: p.19 Thank You and You're Welcome (2009)
Source: Odd Mom Out
Speaking to the rest of the Hollywood Ten during their preparation for testimony, in answer to a hypothetical prosecution ploy, "Do you believe in free speech for fascists?" From Odd Man Out: A Memoir of the Hollywood Ten by Edward Dmytryk (1996, Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL).