Lies—sometimes they’re tiny white ones, sometimes they’re the kind that shake the foundations of trust. Whether they make you roll your eyes, burst out laughing, or stop to think, quotes about lying capture the absurdity and pain of dishonesty in ways that stick with you.
With the right mix of wit, sarcasm, and truth, they not only call out deceit but also remind us why honesty matters.
In this collection, we’ve gathered over 80 quotes about lying—some sharp and funny, some wise and sobering. Divided into relatable categories, they’ll have you nodding in agreement, chuckling at the clever turns of phrase, and maybe rethinking a few relationships.
Quotes About the Cost of Lies in Relationships
- “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
- “A single lie discovered is enough to create doubt in every truth expressed.” — Unknown
- “Lying is done with words, and also with silence.” — Adrienne Rich
- “A relationship without trust is like a car without gas. You can stay in it all you want, but it won’t go anywhere.” — Michael J. Herbert
- “Once trust is broken, some attitudes have to be changed because they are needed to build it up again.” — Unknown
- “Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.” — Arthur Miller
- “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” — Stephen King
- “No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.” — Abraham Lincoln
- “For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth.” — Bo Bennett
- “Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it.” — Jonathan Swift
Quotes About the Truth Always Prevailing
- “The truth may hurt for a little while, but a lie hurts forever.” — Unknown
- “A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.” — Edgar J. Mohn
- “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” — Mark Twain
- “You can fool all the people some of the time… but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” — Abraham Lincoln
- “False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.” — Plato
- “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” — Buddha
- “Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief, or ignorance.” — W. Clement Stone
- “The truth always finds a way out, even years later.” — Tyler Hamilton
- “No lie can live forever.” — Thomas Carlyle
- “In time, the truth will come to light.” — William Shakespeare
Short and Sarcastic Quotes About Lying
- “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” — Winston Churchill
- “I don’t lie—I’m just really good at fiction.” — Unknown
- “Some people would rather climb a tree to tell a lie than stand on the ground to tell the truth.” — Unknown
- “The problem with lying is that you have to keep track of which lies you told to whom.” — Unknown
- “Never argue with a liar. You can’t win because they believe their own lies.” — Unknown
- “I don’t need a lie detector test, I just watch how fast you change your story.” — Unknown
- “If I had a dollar for every lie you told, I’d be rich enough to buy the truth.” — Unknown
- “It’s not the lie that bothers me. It’s the insult to my intelligence that I find offensive.” — Unknown
- “The best way to tell if someone is lying? Watch their lips—if they’re moving, they’re lying.” — Unknown
- “A lie is a very short-lived victory. The truth always takes the trophy home.” — Unknown
Quotes About the Nature of Lies
- “A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity.” — Baltasar Gracián
- “The best lies are wrapped around a piece of truth.” — Unknown
- “Lying is a cooperative act… its power emerges when someone else agrees to believe it.” — Pamela Meyer
- “False words are not only evil… they infect the soul with evil.” — Plato
- “Every violation of truth is a stab at the health of human society.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “A lie is like a snowball: the further you roll it, the bigger it gets.” — Martin Luther
- “When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.” — Yevgeny Yevtushenko
- “He who permits himself to tell a lie once finds it easier to do it again.” — Thomas Jefferson
- “Half a truth is often a great lie.” — Benjamin Franklin
- “The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
Quotes About Consequences of Lying
- “Every lie is two lies—the lie we tell others and the lie we tell ourselves to justify it.” — Robert Brault
- “People don’t lie to protect your feelings. They lie to protect theirs.” — Unknown
- “A liar will always be a liar. They just get better at it.” — Unknown
- “Liars need good memories.” — Algernon Sidney
- “One lie has the power to tarnish a thousand truths.” — Al David
- “The liar’s punishment is not that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.” — George Bernard Shaw
- “No matter how far you run, your lies will eventually catch up with you.” — Unknown
- “An error does not become truth because nobody sees it.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- “The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks.” — Miguel de Cervantes
- “Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” — Leo Tolstoy
Quotes About Choosing Honesty
- “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” — Thomas Jefferson
- “Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” — Spencer Johnson
- “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” — Ernest Hemingway
- “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” — Mark Twain
- “When in doubt, tell the truth.” — Mark Twain
- “Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth-telling, truth-speaking, truth-living, and truth-loving.” — James E. Faust
- “Truth is powerful and it prevails.” — Sojourner Truth
- “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” — Albert Einstein
- “To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.” — Confucius
- “The truth may hurt, but it builds trust.” — Unknown
Quotes About Lies Being Exposed
- “The truth always prevails.” — Unknown
- “No one can lie when he looks directly into someone’s eyes.” — Paulo Coelho
- “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” — Buddha
- “Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.” — George Eliot
- “A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.” — William Blake
- “Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth.” — Todd Wagner
- “Truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” — James A. Garfield
- “No lie can live forever.” — Thomas Carlyle
- “In time, the truth will come to light.” — William Shakespeare
- “The truth always takes the trophy home.” — Unknown
Conclusion
These quotes about lying prove that dishonesty might win in the short term, but truth always plays the long game—and wins. Some of these words sting with their accuracy, others make you smirk at their sarcasm, but all remind us why integrity is worth holding onto.
Which of these quotes hit home for you? Share your favorite in the comments, send this to someone who could use a reminder about honesty, and keep these close for when you need a reality check about trust and truth.