Famously Said Random quote

Quotes about truth and lies

458 quotes from 240 people

Most readBy personPage 25 of 31

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Merchant of Venice (c. 1597), Act I, Scene III, spoken by AntonioIn context
- Good & Evil
The world is still deceiv’d with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being season’d with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil?
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Merchant of Venice (c. 1597), Act III, Scene II, spoken by BassanioIn context
- Laws
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Much Ado About Nothing (c. 1598), Act II, Scene III, spoken by BalthasarIn context
- Men
Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and to conclude, they are lying knaves.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Much Ado About Nothing (c. 1598), Act V, Scene I, spoken by DogberryIn context
- Comedy
An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Richard III (c. 1593), Act IV, Scene IV, spoken by Queen ElizabethIn context
- Talking
The lady protests too much, methinks.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Hamlet (c. 1600), Act III, Scene II, spoken by QueenIn context
- Women
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Macbeth (c. 1606), Act I, Scene VII, spoken by MacbethIn context
All great truths begin as blasphemies.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Annajanska (1919)
It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Man and Superman (1903), Maxims for Revolutionists, p. 243 Stray Sayings
My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950John Bull’s Other Island (1907), Act II
- Humor
There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1893), Act III (Crofts)
I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly tell our children that honesty is the best policy.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950“Rungs of the Ladder”, BBC Radio broadcast (11 July 1932)
- Children
You have heretofore read public sentiment in your newspapers, that live by falsehood and excitement; and the quicker you seek for truth in other quarters, the better.
William Tecumseh Sherman1820–1891Letter to the City of Atlanta (September 1864)
- Journalism
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
Socrates470–399 BC
I believe that world literature has it in its power to help mankind, in these its troubled hours, to see itself as it really is, notwithstanding the indoctrinations of prejudiced people and parties.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn1918–2008Nobel lecture (1970)
- Writing