Mark Twain Quotes About Lying
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A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.
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A historian who would convey the truth has got to lie. Often he must enlarge the truth by diameters, otherwise his reader would not be able to see it.
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The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.
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A jay hasnt got any more principle than a Congressman. A jay will lie, a jay will steal, a jay will deceive, a jay will betray; and four times out of five, a jay will go back on his solemnest promise.
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It is often the case that a man who can't tell a lie thinks he is the best judge of one.
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The old saw says, 'Let a sleeping dog lie.' Right. Still, when there is much at stake it is better to get a newspaper to do it.
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I have learned that there lies dormant in the souls of all men a penchant for some particular musical instrument an an unsuspected yearning to play on it, which are bound to wake up an demand attention someday. Therefore you who rail at such that disturb your slumbers with unsuccessful and demoralizing attempts to subjugate a guitar, beware! For sooner or later your own time will come.
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Therein lies the defect of revenge: it's all in the anticipation; the thing itself is a pain, not a pleasure; at least the pain is the biggest end of it.
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A little lie can travel half way 'round the world while Truth is still lacing up her boots.
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A lie can make it half way around the world before the truth has time to put its boots on.
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Never tell a lie-except for practice.
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The old saw says - 'Let a sleeping dog lie.' Experience knows better; experience says, If you want to convince do it yourself.
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Deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie - I found that out.
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It is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie around neglected.
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Never waste a lie; you never know when you may need it.
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The most outrageous lies that can be invented will find believers if a person only tells them with all his might.
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An injurious lie is an uncommendable thing; and so, also, and in the same degree, is an injurious truth a fact that is recognized by the law of libel .
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To avoid lying, do nothing that needs covering.
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The wise thing is for us diligently to train ourselves to lie thoughtfully, judiciously; to lie with a good object, and not an evil one; to lie for others' advantage, and not our own; to lie healingly, charitably, humanely, not cruelly, hurtfully, maliciously; to lie gracefully and graciously, not awkwardly and clumsily; to lie firmly, frankly, squarely, with head erect, not haltingly, tortuously, with pusillanimous mien, as being ashamed of our high calling.
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In this age of inventive wonders all men have come to believe that in some genius' brain sleeps the solution of the grand problem of aerial navigation-and along with that belief is the hope that that genius will reveal his miracle before they die, and likewise a dread that he will poke off somewhere and die himself before he finds out that he has such a wonder lying dormant in his brain. We all know the air can be navigated-therefore, hurry up your sails and bladders-satisfy us-let us have peace.
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Note that venerable proverb: Children and fools always speak the truth. The deduction is plain: adults and wise persons never speak it.
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If you tell the truth you do not need a good memory!
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George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.
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Figures don't lie, but liars figure.
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But we love the Old Travelers. We love to hear them prate and drivel and lie.
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My own luck has been curious all my literary life; I never could tell a lie that anyone would doubt, nor a truth that anybody would believe.
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When a library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me and doesn't anger me.
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What a lie it is to call this a free country, where none but the unworthy and undeserving may swear.
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We love old travelers: we love to hear them prate, drivel and lie; we love them for their asinine vanity, their ability to bore, their luxuriant fertility of imagination, their startling, brilliant, overwhelming mendacity.
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One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.
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