Robert Jordan Quotes

Politics. The art of governing mankind by deceiving them.

I tried to be diplomatic, but mostly I just lied a lot.

Reality is easy. It's deception that's the hard work.

No one can be happy who has been thrust outside the pale of truth. And there are two ways that one can be removed from this realm: by lying, or by being lied to.

A lie told often enough becomes the truth.

Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks.

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.

It takes a wise man to handle a lie, a fool had better remain honest.

Never was it given to mortal man - To lie so boldly as we women can.

Politicians are better liars than writers.

The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies.

Whoever attacks the popular falsehoods of his time will find that a lie defends itself by telling other lies. Nothing is so prolific, nothing can so multiply itself, nothing can lay and hatch as many eggs, as a good, healthy, lie.

I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I speak the truth, and they never believe me.

Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesize and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation

If you have the ability to convince somebody of something that you don't necessarily think is the case, it's a valuable asset. Not that I'm, like, a pathological liar, but we spend most of the day not fully being honest, you know?

So a lie told a million times becomes the truth.

Malicious lying is usually a matter of need, but often the cruelest things we say are the truth.

Not all lies are harmful. Sometimes we're willing participants in deception for the sake of social dignity, maybe to keep a secret that should be kept secret, secret. We say, 'Nice song.' 'Honey, you don't look fat in that, no.'

Dealing with a government with whom mendacity is a science is an extremely difficult and delicate matter.

Tell all the Truth, but tell it slant/Success in Circuit lies.

The best lies are always at least partially true.

A successful lie cannot be brought into this world and capriciously abandoned; like any committed relationship, it must be maintained, and with far more devotion than the truth, which carries on being carelessly true without any help.

Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. 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.