Norman Douglas Quotes

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.

Put away from you a dissembling mouth.

Man is ice to truth and fire to falsehood.

A lie cannot live.

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.

You cannot play naive if you're not.

I won't tolerate lying.

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

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

If what is communicated is false, it can hardly be called communication.

The trouble with lying and deceiving is that their efficiency depends entirely upon a clear notion of the truth that the liar and deceiver wishes to hide.

It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.

Politicians are better liars than writers.

It is fitting that a liar should be a man of good memory.

Anybody can make something up and have it sound believable. The hard part is remembering all the lies you've told, and all the people you've told them to, and then living the lies that have become your life.

O, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!

Have you weaned yourself of your off-putting proclivity for not telling the truth/

Liar' is the best work I've done.

Telling lies is the easy bit, but telling the truth and pretending you are lying is hard.

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.

When both parties are lying and they both know the other party's lying, it comes powerful close to being the same thing as telling the truth.

Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies.

Titles are marks of honest men, and wise; The fool or knave that wears a title lies.

Nearly everyone will lie to you, given the right circumstances.

I doubt he knows himself when he’s not telling the truth.