Quotes About Deception

Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstance require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about.

After all, every use of language without exception has some, if not all, of the characteristic features of lies.

The bullshitter ignores these demands altogether. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit.

However, it must not be assumed that bullshit always and necessarily has pretentiousness as its motive.

There are similarities between hot air and excrement, incidentally, which make hot air seem an especially suitable equivalent for bullshit. Just as hot air is speech that has been emptied of all informative content, so excrement is matter from which everything nutritive has been removed.

We may seek to distance ourselves from bullshit, but we are more likely to turn away from it with an impatient or irritated shrug than with the sense of violation or outrage that lies often inspire. The problem of understanding why our attitude towards bullshit is generally more benign than our attitude toward lying is an important one...

What the eyes see and the ears hear the mind believes

Sir Arthur, I have devoted a lot of time and thought to this illusion ... I won't tell you how it was done, but I can assure you it was pure trickery. I did it by perfectly normal means. I devised it to show you what can be done along these lines. Now, I beg of you, Sir Arthur, do not jump to the conclusion that certain things you see are necessarily "supernatural," or the work of "spirits," just because you cannot explain them....

I'm afraid love is just a word.

Nixon is a shifty-eyed goddamn liar. . . . .He's one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.

Nixon is one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.

Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in.

On the one hand, the Republicans are telling industrial workers that the high cost of food in the cities is due to this government's farm policy. On the other hand, the Republicans are telling the farmers that the high cost of manufactured goods on the farm is due to this government's labor policy. That's plain hokum. It's an old political trick: "If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em." But this time it won't work.

You can't get rich in politics unless you're a crook. - Harry S. Truman

The dictators of the world say that if you tell a lie often enough, why, people will believe it. Well, if you tell the truth often enough, they'll believe it and go along with you.

Let my lusts be my ruin, then, since all else is a fake and a mockery.

Artus führte die Frau und den Mann und doch folgten ihm beide nicht, wie ich euch jetzt erklären will: sie tauschten beide untereinander die Herzen, die Dame und Herr Iwein: Artus folgten ihr Herz und er selbst, und zurück blieben sein Herz und die Frau.

As we have seen, Pharaoh's magicians were able to deceive everyone, apart from Musa (as) and those who believed in him. However, his evidence broke the spell, or "swallowed up what they had forged," as the verse puts it: We revealed to Musa: "Throw down your staff." And it immediately swallowed up what they had forged. So the Truth took place and what they did was shown to be false. (Surat al-A'raf, 117-8)

That future is not far off: On the contrary, people will soon see that "chance" is not a deity, and will look back on the theory of evolution as the worst deceit and the most terrible spell in the world. That spell is already rapidly beginning to be lifted from the shoulders of people all over the world. Many people who see its true face are wondering with amazement how they could ever have been taken in by it.

If you ask them: "Who created the heavens and Earth and made the Sun and Moon subservient?" They will say: "Allah." So how have they been deluded [away from the truth]? (Surat al-'Ankabut, 29:61)

Lies are usually caused by undue fear of men.

The worst pain in the world goes beyond the physical. Even further beyond any other emotional pain one can feel. It is the betrayal of a friend.

The world is full of monsters with friendly faces.