Skip to content

Quotes about Lying

    “There can be no liberation when our most intimate relationships are built on—and really inflected by—deception, abuse, misdirection, antiblackness, patriarchy, and bald-faced lies.”

    Kiese Laymon, Heavy (Page 239)

      “As a child I was taught that to tell the truth was often painful. As an adult I have learned that not to tell the truth is more painful, and that the fear of telling the truth — whatever the truth may be — that fear is the most painful sensation of a moral life.”

      June Jordan, Some Of Us Did Not Die

        “The exposure of a lie is as valuable to a community as a clearly expressed truth.”

        Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 271)

          “If one can actually revert to the truth, then a great deal of one’s suffering can be erased—because a great deal of one’s suffering is based on sheer lies.”

          R. D. Laing, via Sunbeams (Page 134)

            “If you tell the truth, you have infinite power supporting you; but if not, you have infinite power against you.”

            Charles Gordon, via Sunbeams (Page 97)

              “Remember: one lie does not cost you one truth but the truth.”

              Friedrich Hebbel, via Sunbeams (Page 78)

              R. Buckminster Fuller Quote on Truth and How It’s Completely Spontaneous

                “Truth is completely spontaneous. Lies have to be taught.”

                R. Buckminster Fuller, Sunbeams (Page 23)

                Beyond the Quote (Day 387)

                I suspect that most people overthink the act of being—and it’s easy to see why. Think about everything that we’re exposed to on a daily basis. All of the advertisements, the images, the messages, the conversations—and think about how each of them communicate a different way of being. You can be the person who does this; who buys that; who believes this; who supports that; who interacts here; who chooses to go there; who speaks up about this; who follows people like that; who dresses like this; who spends their time doing that… the possibilities for becoming are, quite literally, endless.

                Read More »R. Buckminster Fuller Quote on Truth and How It’s Completely Spontaneous

                  “We have to be utterly broken before we can realize that it is impossible to better the truth. It is the truth that we deny which so tenderly and forgivingly picks up the fragments and puts them together again.”

                  Laurens Van der Post, Sunbeams (Page 17)

                    “Once you have heard a truth it is impossible to forget it. That is one of the qualities of truth, that you don’t need to remember it. The lie has to be remembered continually; you may forget. The person habituated to lies needs a better memory than the person who is habituated to truth, because a true person has no need of memory. If you say only the truth there is no need to remember. But if you are saying a lie, then you have to continually remember because you have said one lie to one person, another lie to another person, something else to somebody else.”

                    Osho, Courage (Page 186)

                      “If your life is not what it could be, try telling the truth.  If you cling desperately to an ideology, or wallow in nihilism, try telling the truth.  If you feel weak and rejected, and desperate, and confused, try telling the truth.  In Paradise, everyone speaks the truth.  That is what makes it Paradise.  Tell the truth.  Or, at least, don’t lie.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 230)

                        “Lies corrupt the world.  Worse, that is their intent.” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 229)

                          “Lying makes a problem part of the future; truth makes a problem part of the past.” ~ Rick Pitino