Quotes About Deception

A man saw a ball of gold in the sky; He climbed for it, And eventually he achieved it -- It was clay. Now this is the strange part: When the man went to the earth And looked again, Lo, there was the ball of gold. Now this is the strange part: It was a ball of gold. Aye, by the heavens, it was a ball of gold.

if falsehood is your nature, then only by falsehood can you be true.

Am I telling the truth? I think I am a truthful man. From moment to moment I believe myself sincere, but sometimes looking back I can see I've been mistaken, even that I've lied.

In a dung heap, even a plastic bead can gleam like a sapphire.

Not one word of the following is true

But an Adrian also knew that an Adrian's lies were real: they were lived and felt and acted out as thoroughly as another man's truths - if other men had truths - and he believed it possible that this last lie might see him through to the grave.

Kronos had seen by now that his wife was expecting and he readied himself for the happy day when he could consume the sixth of his children. He was taking no chances.

The puzzle that besets me is best expressed by the following statements. a: None of what follows ever happened b: All of what follows is entirely true

After all I've done for you? Medea kept her voice steady. 'Who was it who helped you defeat the fire-breathing oven and the great spent of the Grove of Area? Who was it who overcame Talos of Crete...' Yes, yes, yes. But...

It is easier to hide a hundred mountains from a jealous wife than one mistress.

What the eye doesn't see the stomach doesn't heave over.

We are playing the most artistic and beautiful game man ever devised. Of course I'll cunting well cheat.

What did we see last night?" he asked. "It wasn't warfare. It was madness. Deception, savagery, dishonor, and disgrace. What have the mortals become?" "Terrible, isn't it? Who do they think they are—gods?" "There's a time for humor, Hermes, and this isn't it," said Apollo.

I'm all right, I told her. This is a lie, when you're twelve. And all the other years, too.

Since spies must survive by telling lies, it can be hard to know when they are telling the truth.

Finally, he said, "Anything. He was capable of anything. The truth is, even though they had his name on a plaque on the wall at Langley, Frenchy sold me to the Russians in 1974, when I was in Kurdistan. There were unpleasant consequences. He had no conscience. He was a great man who was capable of great evil, not that uncommon a combination. Whatever you think he did, he probably did. And worse.

Chanters, second-edition sellers, boardwalkers, strawers, mountebanks, clowns, jugglers, conjurors, grease removers, nostrum vendors, fortune-tellers, French polishers, turnpike sailors, various classes of lurkers and peepers, stenographic-card sellers, racetrack-card sellers.

You lie well, and I appreciate the effort it takes. It's not so easy, as any commissar knows.

self-deception as the preliminary to public deception is almost automatic. —WALTER LIPPMANN

We lie best when we lie to ourselves.

Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.

The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool.

Give me just enough information so that I can lie convincingly.

First comes smiles, then lies. Last is gunfire.-Roland Deschain, of Gilead