“The people who lie the most are nearly always the clumsiest at it, and they're easier to fool with lies than most people, too. You'd think they'd be on the look-out for lies, but they seem to be the very ones that will believe almost anything at all.”

—  Dashiell Hammett, book The Thin Man

Source: The Thin Man

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The people who lie the most are nearly always the clumsiest at it, and they're easier to fool with lies than most peopl…" by Dashiell Hammett?
Dashiell Hammett photo
Dashiell Hammett39
American writer 1894–1961

Related quotes

Hannah Arendt photo

“The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie — a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days — but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.”

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) Jewish-American political theorist

The New York Review of Books interview with the French writer Roger Errera (1978)

Terry Pratchett photo

“It's lies. It's all lies. Some of them are just prettier than others, that's all. People see what they think is there.”

Terry Pratchett book Monstrous Regiment

Source: Monstrous Regiment

Chris Rock photo

“Men lie the most,

women tell the biggest lies.”

Chris Rock (1965) American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director

Brandon Mull photo

“Sometimes the most preposterous lies are the most believable.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Rise of the Evening Star

Thomas Sowell photo

“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

Joseph Heller photo

“Major Major had lied, and it was good. He was not really surprised that it was good, for he had observed that people who did lie were, on the whole, more resourceful and ambitious and successful than people who did not lie.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

W. Somerset Maugham photo

“Almost all the people who have had most effect on me I seem to have met by chance.”

W. Somerset Maugham book The Razor's Edge

The Razor's Edge (1943)

Hunter S. Thompson photo

“I drink much less than most people think, and I think much more than most people would believe.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Source: Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

Rush Limbaugh photo

“Let me tell you something. They say he lied to Congress. I can think of no better bunch of people to lie to than Congress.”

Rush Limbaugh (1951) U.S. radio talk show host, Commentator, author, and television personality

The Rush Limbaugh Show
1994-06-06
Television, quoted in [The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, New Press, 1995-05-01, 105, 156584260X, 31782620]
on Oliver North

Jasper Fforde photo

“the best lies to tell are the ones people want to believe”

Jasper Fforde (1961) British novelist

Source: Shades of Grey

Related topics