“Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he, "That when they speak truth they are not believed."”

Aristotle, 9.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 5: The Peripatetics

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he, "That when they speak truth they are not believe…" by Diogenes Laërtius?

Diogenes Laërtius107

biographer of ancient Greek philosophers 180–240

Stanley Lombardo (1943) Philosopher, Classicist

Theogony, lines 28–29
Translations, Works and Days and Theogony (1993)

“Intellectuals may like to think of themselves as people who "speak truth to power" but too often they are people who speak lies to gain power.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Random Thoughts http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2004/02/25/random_thoughts/page/full, Feb 25, 2004 <br class="br">2000s

“The Kafka paradox: art depends on truth, but truth, being indivisable, cannot know itself: to tell the truth is to lie. thus the writer is the truth, and yet when he speaks he lies.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

“You mustn't alway believe what I say", he once told me. "Questions tempt you to tell lies, particularly when there is no answer.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

From Picasso, His Life and Work, Sir Roland Penrose, (1981), p. 413
Attributed from posthumous publications

“I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse.”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

De Profundis (1897)

“Truly, to tell lies is not honorable;
But when the truth entails tremendous ruin,
To speak dishonorably is pardonable.”

Sophocles (-496–-406 BC) ancient Greek tragedian

Creusa, fragment 323.

“Whoever has even once become notorious by base fraud, even if he speaks the truth, gains no belief.”

Phaedrus book Fables

Book I, fable 10, line 1.
Fables

“2084. He that does not speak Truth to me, does not believe me when I speak Truth.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

“It was a lie but he believed in telling lies to people. Truth telling and medicine just didn't go together except in dire emergencies, if then.”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

Source: The Godfather

“It is said (I do not know with what truth) that a certain Hindu thinker believed the earth to rest upon an elephant. When asked what the elephant rested upon, he replied that it rested upon a tortoise. When asked what the tortoise rested upon, he said, "I am tired of this. Suppose we change the subject."”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

This illustrates the unsatisfactory character of the First-Cause argument.
"Is There a God?" (1952)
1950s

“Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he, "That when they speak truth they are not believed."”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Diogenes Laërtius107

Related quotes

Related topics