There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
If you live in bad faith, lies will appear to you like the truth.
it is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.' 'A melancholy conclusion,' said K. 'It turns lying into a universal principle.
Truth does not do as much good in the world as its imitations do harm.
Religion is a sham when it claims to reveal the secret of life and death, to possess the eternal supreme truth, when it says that he who does not believe shall be damned.
Bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.
Until I know this sure uncertainty, I'll entertain the offered fallacy.
Know that a lie is not haram [wrong] in itself, but only because the evil conclusions to which it leads the hearer, making him believe something that is not really the case.... If a lie is the only way of obtaining a good result, it is permissible.... We must lie when truth leads to unpleasant results.
He knew how to say many false things that were like true sayings.
My personal life is in the spotlight, but people say what they want to say. The truth isn't in the spotlight, I should say. I'm in the spotlight, but not the truth.
It was so useful to lie with the truth.
Clutching our crystals and religiously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in steep decline, unable to distinguish between what's true and what feels good, we slide, almost without noticing, into superstition and darkness.
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth.
Strange times are these, in which we live, forsooth ; When young and old are taught in Falsehood's school:– And the man who dares to tell the truth, Is called at once a lunatic and fool.
The truth doesn't always set you free; people prefer to believe prettier, neatley wrapped lies
Whatever is almost true is quite false, and among the most dangerous of errors, because being so near truth, it is more likely to lead astray.
Power can shape 'truth,' but not forever.
More persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing in nothing, than by believing too much.
We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster's whim and the purest ideal.
Who you gonna believe-me or your lying eyes?
Here's a certainty: When you play out your personal dramas, hurt and self-interest in the media, it's a confection. You say what you have to say in the way you have to say it to give it media currency - and that's always far from the truth. Often, in fact, someone else says it for you. It's all planned. It's all rehearsed.
Some disguised deceits counterfeit truth so perfectly that not to be taken in by them would be an error of judgment.
The false can never grow into truth by growing in power.
Now go back and meet all those people who you think know everything. Convince yourself that they're right, because we all know everything, it's merely a question of believing.
