Children and fools cannot lie.
—John Heywood, 1546Quotes
You can put wings on a pig, but you don’t make it an eagle.
—Bill Clinton, 1996It was the men I deceived the most that I loved the most.
—Marguerite Duras, 1987The poor man is ruined as soon as he begins to ape the rich.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCCredulity forges more miracles than trickery could invent.
—Joseph Joubert, 1811In most cases men willingly believe what they wish.
—Julius Caesar, 52 BCThere was no treachery too base for the world to commit.
—Virginia Woolf, 1927Alongside all swindlers the state now stands there as swindler-in-chief.
—Jacob Burckhardt, c. 1875Anyone who’s never experienced the pleasure of betrayal doesn’t know what pleasure is.
—Jean Genet, 1986And, after all, what is a lie? ’Tis but the truth in masquerade.
—Lord Byron, 1822If you find excrement somewhere in the village, the chief was the one who put it there.
—Congolese proverbCheating is more honorable than stealing.
—German proverbAn honest man is all right even if he’s an idiot…but a crook must have brains.
—Maxim Gorky, 1902