There is much difference between imitating a good man, and counterfeiting him.

You can put wings on a pig, but you don’t make it an eagle.

If you find excrement somewhere in the village, the chief was the one who put it there.

Grow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth.

Cheating is more honorable than stealing. 

Alongside all swindlers the state now stands there as swindler-in-chief.

Anyone who’s never experienced the pleasure of betrayal doesn’t know what pleasure is.

Men were born to lie, and women to believe them.

Children and fools cannot lie. 

Credulity forges more miracles than trickery could invent.

In most cases men willingly believe what they wish.

And, after all, what is a lie? ’Tis but the truth in masquerade.

Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie.