Recognizing and Rising Above Deceit: 191 Liar Quotes to Empower You

By Norbert Juma

Master quote curator and editor on a mission to inspire

Updated May 21, 2024

Looking for the best liar quotes for when you’ve been deceived?

Being lied to hurts so much.

I always say that when someone lies to me, they call me stupid because they don’t think I will catch them.

Tell us which liar quote resonated most with you in the comment section below.

Being a victim of deceit shatters your faith; the next time, you find it harder to trust.

The horrible feeling of distrust is the same whether you’ve been deceived by a:

loved one
boss
business partner

However, you shouldn’t allow lies to change who you are and how you live.

If you’ve been taken advantage of, all it means is that you’re an honest person.

You can still preserve your ability to trust.

These liar quotes will help you understand that people lie because of them and not because of you.

Though it might not be easy as it sounds, the first thing you can do when you’ve lied is to forgive yourself for being fooled.

And to avoid being fooled again, don’t give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Learn the basics of spotting a liar, and you’ll be a step ahead of the game.

Also, don’t be shy to verify what people tell you.

Below is our collection of inspirational, wise, and thought-provoking liar quotes, liar sayings, and liar proverbs, collected from various sources over the years.

Liar Quotes for When You’ve Been Lied to and Manipulated

1. “One lie has the power to tarnish a thousand truths.” ― Al David

2. “Stupidity is to have amnesia over your own faults when the person you hate makes theirs.” ― Shannon L. Alder

3. “When your ears hear one thing, but your eyes see another…use your brain.” ― Frank Sonnenberg

4. “Stop falling for those who won’t raise you up in the future.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson

5. “Lies are like cockroaches, for every one you discover there are many more that are hidden.” ― Gary Hopkins

6. “I don’t degrade anyone, but a liar and a person, who doesn’t keep his or her words, has not any value in my eyes.” ― Ehsan Sehgal

7. “When people don’t tell you the truth what they really are saying is they don’t value you or their relationship with you enough, to be honest.” ― Shannon L. Alder

8. “But he that sows lie in the end shall not lack a harvest, and soon he may rest from toil indeed, while others reap and sow in his stead.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien

9. “Pigs are dirty, but I will tell you something dirtier: Liars! Untruth always smells like rotten garbage!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan

10. “Lies sound like facts to those who’ve been conditioned to misrecognize the truth.” ― DaShanne Stokes

Liar quotes for when you’ve been deceived

11. “I wasn’t sure which was worse – to know you were a liar or to believe your own bullshit.” ― Eileen Cook

12. “The ability to lie, paired with unaccountability, has made a near infinite amount of liabilities.” ― Justin K. McFarlane

13. “Be careful… not all are what they seem. Some people pretend to be the beach, but they’re actually quicksand.” ― Steve Maraboli

14. “Truth is as straight as an arrow, while a lie swivels like a snake.” ― Suzy Kassem

15. “Some people are in such utter darkness that they will burn you just to see a light. Try not to take it personally.” ― Kamand Kojouri

16. “Before you call yourself a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu or any other theology, learn to be human first.” ― Shannon L. Alder

17. “In politics, you learn how to say A mean to say B, in wisdom you learn how to say A and keep saying that.” ― Auliq Ice

18. “There is tremendous trauma in the betrayal caused by a perpetual liar as they repeatedly commit psychological abuse.” ― Cathy Burnham Martin

19. “Take back your power! I wish you the wisdom to realize that the problem isn’t that they keep lying to you; it’s that you keep believing them.” ― Steve Maraboli

20. “Anybody who says they are a good liar obviously is not, because any legitimately savvy liar would always insist they’re honest about everything.” ― Chuck Klosterman

Liar quotes for when you’ve been taken advantage of

21. “People don’t lie to contaminate truth. They lie to pollute their hearts.” ― Munia Khan

22. “You can’t always expect people to apply your wisdom when they didn’t use wisdom before they found themselves knee deep in their version of justice.” ― Shannon L. Alder

23. “The problem with being a liar is you can never believe anyone else.” ― Chloe Thurlow

24. “Only fools and liars claim to know everything because the fool thinks all that he knows is everything and the liar knows there is no sufficient data to know everything” ― Nyona Matende

25. “No one believes a liar. Even when she’s telling the truth.” ― Sara Shepard

26. “When you don’t have honesty in love then there is no communication. Honesty is the improvisation of the heart; anything less is a well thought out and rehearsed the script.” ― Shannon L. Alder

27. “Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to get the truth back.” ― Gore Vidal

28. “To know the good from the bad, study a man or woman’s history of actions, not their record of intentions.” ― Suzy Kassem

29. “Never stand in the way of letting God use people’s actions, in order to solve a greater issue in the world.” ― Shannon L. Alder

30. “I don’t hate Liars. I just disrespect them, because they disrespect themselves in the first place.” ― Revaz Eristavi

Liar quotes to help you preserve your ability to trust

31. “A coward talks to everyone but YOU.” ― Shannon L. Alder

32. “Accepting fraud from our leaders means accepting fraud in our personal lives.” ― DaShanne Stokes

33. “Thieves and liars kill indirectly, unintentionally, and with no other weapon than their tongues and malice.” ― A.E.H. Veenman

34. “Lies don’t end relationships the truth does.” ― Shannon L. Alder

35. “I do really believe that, like so many liars, there is a real substratum of truth behind her lies.” ― Agatha Christie

36. “Screaming and repeating lies makes them neither true nor more believable.” ― Cathy Burnham Martin

37. “Direct lies, small lies, huge lies, and lies of omission… these are all self-serving and sources of self-destruction.” ― Cathy Burnham Martin

38. “Neither a fake friend nor a liar can be trusted, with a secret.” ― Ellen J. Barrier

39. “Adding more bull to bull yields bigger bull.” ― Cathy Burnham Martin

40. “The way to happiness is by the truth. Seek to be true in all things and you will have a foundation to build your future.” ― Shannon L. Alder

Thought-provoking liar quotes

41. “We reveal most about ourselves when we speak about others.” ― Kamand Kojouri

42. “The liar was the hottest to defend his veracity, the coward his courage, the ill-bred his gentlemanliness, and the cad his honor.” ― Margaret Mitchell

44. “Hypocrites get offended by the truth.” ― Jess C. Scott

44. “Unfortunately, in today’s world a liar seems to be more reliable than a truthful, honest man.” ― Munia Khan

45. “Warns, lies, liars, and mysteries everything in one place. What’s more awesome than that??? Better check out Blindspot!” ― Deyth Banger

46. “People wear a mask of a lie, so they look attractive, so be careful.” ― Muhammad Saqib

47. “He, of course, is a liar, but that doesn’t really matter because, if you know liars are liars, it comes to the same thing.” ― Agatha Christi

48. “When God takes out the trash, don’t go digging back through it. Trust Him.” ― Amaka Imani Nkosazana

49. “People lie, cheat and bully one another and then wonder why they’re unhappy.” ― Marty Rubin

50. “When your lover is a liar, you and he have a lot in common, you’re both lying to you!” ― Susan Forward

More liar quotes and sayings

51. “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

52. “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” – Stephen King

53. “The most confused we ever get is when we’re trying to convince our heads of something our heart knows is a lie.” – Karen Marie Moning

54. “Once you place that crown of liar on your head, you can take it off again, but it leaves a stain for all time.” – Terry Goodkind

55. “The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.” – Thomas Sowell

56. “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” – Adolf Hitler

57. “A good liar knows that the most efficient lie is always a truth that has had a key piece removed from it.” – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

58. “Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

59. “A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.” – Aesop

60. “A liar is a liar and lives on the lies he tells and dies in a life of lies.” – Carl Sandburg

61. “The truly scary thing about undiscovered lies is that they have a greater capacity to diminish us than exposed ones.” – Cheryl Hughes

62. “Hard truths can be dealt with, triumphed over, but lies will destroy your soul.” – Patricia Briggs

63. “Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky

64. “If it is necessary sometimes to lie to others, it is always despicable to lie to oneself.” – W. Somerset Maugham

65. “Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.” – Dorothy Allison

Liar quotes to help you recognize them

66. “The world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars and the selfish hide in high places.” -Bryant H. McGill

67. “Liars need to have good memories.” -Algernon Sidney

68. “He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.” -Charles Peguy

69. “Men are liars. We’ll lie about lying if we have to. I’m an algebra liar. I figure two good lies make a positive.” -Tim Allen

70. “Liars are always most disposed to swear.” -Vittorio Alfieri

71. “No relationship is perfect and people who say they don’t argue are either liars or biting their tongues all the time.” -Kym Marsh

72. “Regrets? I think everyone has regrets, and people who say they haven’t are either liars… or narcissists.” -Lee Radziwill

73. “Bands that say they don’t care about how their records sell are liars.” -Brandon Flowers

74. “The best liars lie with their eyes rather than with their words.” -Joanna Scott

75. “I think all actors are professional liars.” -Sidharth Malhotra

Liar Quotes and Sayings from Famous People

76. “If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow, speak the truth today.” – Bruce Lee

77. “Even a tiny bit of deceit is dishonorable when it’s used for selfish or cowardly reasons.” – Jeanne Birdsall

78. “When people cheat in any arena, they diminish themselves-they threaten their own self-esteem and their relationships with others by undermining the trust they have in their ability to succeed and in their ability to be true.” – Cheryl Hughes

79. “It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.” – George Washington

80. “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” – Mark Twain

81. The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept.” – George Carlin

82. “Over time, any deception destroys intimacy, and without intimacy couples cannot have true and lasting love.” – Bonnie Eaker Weil

83. I never lie,” I said offhand. “At least not to those I don’t love. – Anne Rice

84. “When a man is penalized for honesty he learns to lie.” – Criss Jami

85. “The mistake ninety-nine percent of humanity made, as far as facts could see, was being ashamed of what they were; lying about it, trying to be somebody else.” – J.K. Rowling

Short Liar Quotes You Should Know

86. “The liar’s punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.” — George Bernard Shaw

87. “A storyteller makes up things to help other people; a liar makes up things to help himself.” — Daniel Wallace

88. “Liars share with those they deceive the desire not to be deceived.” — Sissela Bok

89. “Those who think it is permissible to tell white lies soon grow color-blind.” — Austin O’Malley

90. “No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.” — Abraham Lincoln

91. “Lying is done with words, and also with silence.” — Adrienne Rich

92. “While photographs may not lie, liars may photograph.” — Lewis Hine

93. “Liars are always ready to take oaths.” — Vittorio Alfieri

94. “Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are your own fears.” — Rudyard Kipling

95. “The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.” — John Ruskin

Funny Liar Quotes That Will Make You Smile

96. “Be bad, but at least don’t be a liar, a deceiver!” ― Leo Tolstoy

97. “Denial can be beautiful. But only when you’re a fantastic liar.” ― Kim Holden

98. “Whoever said that childhood is the happiest time of your life is a liar, or a fool.” ― Carlos Ruiz Zafón

99. “I was so mad, I reached into the drawer for her fake sushi eraser and put it in my pocket. Serves her right for being such a big, fat, Eggo-scarfing liar.” ― Sarah Darer Littman

100. “Sometimes your mind and your heart want different things, and you know your heart is a liar.” ― Surya Raj

101. “A liar should have a good memory.” ― T.M. Logan

102. “You do not need to defeat a liar, a liar’s lie is itself his or her defeat.” ― Ehsan Sehgal

103. “The one who most seems like a liar is the one who tells a bold-face truth.” ― Runa Pigden

104. “Some people sometimes kiss and tell; some sometimes tell without having kissed.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

105. “A persistent liar cannot prosper without a powerful memory.” ― Amit Kalantri

Liar Quotes That They Cannot Be Trusted

106. “A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.” ― William Shenstone

107. “Liars when they speak the truth are not believed.” ― Aristotle

108. “Liars are the cause of all the sins and crimes in the world.” ― Epictetus

109. “The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!” ― Tennessee Williams

110. “The American people are tired of liars and people who pretend to be something they’re not.” ― Hillary Clinton

111. “The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.” ― Samuel Butler

112. “All liars … lie to protect themselves, to shield their egos from the raw pain of truth.” ― Aminatta Forna

113. “You can best reward a liar by believing nothing of what he says.” ― Aristippus

114. “A hero must be honorable, must have honor. And you can’t have honor if you’re a liar. There is no honor in lying.” ― Jesse Ventura

115. “Liars often set their own traps.” ― Aesop

Liar Quotes for Self Protection

116. “The liar wants to be believed, but lying undermines the foundation for credibility.” — Randal Marlin

117. “Conquer a liar with truth.” — Gautama Buddha

118. “Some liars are so expert they deceive themselves.” — Austin O’Malley

119. “Liars seldom believe anyone else.” — James Cook

120. “Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable.” — Bergen Evans

121. “A liar is not believed even though he tell the truth.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero

122. “I don’t tolerate liars. When somebody lies to me, that’s really, like, just unbearable.” — John Lydon

123. “I have one major problem with the internet: It’s full of liars. There doesn’t seem to be any way to answer to people lying about you.” — John Lydon

124. “Denying the undeniable just makes you sound like a fool as well as a liar.” — Ally Carter

125. Of course, the liar often imagines that he does no harm as long as his lies go undetected.” — Sam Harris

Liar Quotes To Help You Learn More About Liars

126. “The truthful man is usually a liar.” — Alfred Nobel

127. “Sometimes it is easier to see clearly into the liar than into the man who tells the truth. Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object.” — Albert Camus

128. “To a liar, truth is more a stranger than fiction.” — Evan Esar

129. “The slickest way in the world to lie is to tell the right amount of truth at the right time and then shut up.” — Robert A. Heinlein

130. “If you want to be thought a liar, always tell the truth.” — Logan Pearsall Smith

131. “A good lie finds more believers than a bad truth.” — John Laurie

132. “To a liar, the most dangerous individual is the person who catches lies but doesn’t say anything about it. Then the liar isn’t sure which lies are compromised.” — Jesse Ball

133. “There was a distinction between lying and telling half-truths, but it was a very narrow one.” — Alexander McCall Smith

134. “Liars are highly unlikely to admit their lies, never mind apologize for the hurt they’ve caused. Liars don’t genuinely apologize.” — Cathy Burnham Martin

135. “A liar often smiles subtly while telling a lie. It’s an unconscious expression of his delight in getting away with a whopper.” — Pamela Meyer

Liar Quotes To Help You Understand Their Fishy Character

136. “Liar is the one who pretends to be very good or the one who pretends to be very bad.” ― Evan Esar

137. “The visionary lies to himself; the liar only to others.” ― Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

138. “A liar’s worst misfortune is not that no one believes him, but that he can’t believe anyone else.” ― Evan Esar

139. “It is an unconscious liar that is the greatest liar.” ― Samuel Butler

140. “It takes a liar to know a liar.” ― Sanders Sides

141. “A liar deceives himself more than anyone, for he believes he can remain a person of good character when he cannot.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich

142. “Old liars hold lies.” ― Toba Beta

143. “A pathological liar can always be expected to tell you where the truth lies.” ― Evan Esar

144. “But then, liars do make the best magicians, and he happened to be exceptional.” ― Lisa Maxwell

145. “It’s amazing how many cheaters and liars believe they won’t be caught. News Flash: In today’s age of technology, there won’t just be a paper trail. There will be multiple electronic and digital trails, as well.” ― Cathy Burnham Martin

Liar Quotes To Help You Tame Deceitful People

146. “Those who lie, twist life so that it looks tasty to the lazy, brilliant to the ignorant, and powerful to the weak.” — José N. Harris

147. “The biggest liar in the world is They Say.” — Douglas Malloch

148. “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” — Thomas Jefferson

149. “Honesty is the best policy. If I lose mine honor, I lose myself.” — William Shakespeare

150. “A genuine enemy is more useful than a fake friend.” — Mokokoma Mokhonoana

151. “It’s better to be an honest looser than a lying winner.” — Zig Ziglar

152. “Honesty is more than not lying. It is truth-telling, truth-speaking, truth-living, and truth-loving.” — James E. Faust

153. “The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.” — David Foster Wallace

154. “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” — Oscar Wilde

155. “If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone.” — William Shakespeare

Liar Quotes To Discourage the Bad Habit

156. “Just because something isn’t a lie does not mean that it isn’t deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.” ― Criss Jami

157. “Half of the people lie with their lips; the other half with their tears” ― Nassim Nicholas Taleb

158. “The best liars are those who tell the truth most of the time.” ― Brandon Sanderson

159. “The problem with a really excellent liar is that you have to just assume they’re always lying.” ― Holly Black

160. “I am convinced that those people whom the world considers good and respects are all liars and fakes. I do not trust the world.” ― Osamu Dazai

161. “Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.” — Steven Soderbergh

162. “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” — Winston Churchill

163. “For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth.”— Bo Bennett

164. “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” — Charles Spurgeon

165. “Lying is the most fun a woman can have without taking her clothes off.” — Natalie Portman

Liar Quotes that Expose the Art of Deception

166. “It is fitting that a liar should be a man of good memory.” — Quintilian

167. “A liar is always lavish of oaths.” — Pierre Corneille

168. “Politicians are better liars than writers.” — Shan Sa

169. False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.” — Socrates

170. Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.” — Michael Jackson

171. “I don’t know whether guys are more promiscuous or just bigger liars.” — Jennifer Tour Chayes

172. “A liar is a man who does not have the courage to admit his mistakes.” — Santiago Ramón y Cajal

173. “Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage.” — Hosea Ballou

174. “The liar leads an existence of unutterable loneliness.” — Adrienne Rich

175. “A liar needs a good memory.” — Quintilian

Liar Quotes that Shed Light on Dishonesty

176. “I believe in God but people are liars. It’s those people who say they are appointed by God who I don’t believe in.” — Isaac Bashevis Singer

177. “I once called the head of a network a liar. In hindsight, I should have called him an incompetent liar.” — Steven Levitan

178. “You’re such a big liar you gotta get your neighbor to call your dog.” — Garrison Keillor

179. “He entered the territory of lies without a passport for return.” — Graham Greene

180. “True liars never love. True lovers never lie.” — Jeffree Star

181. “I don’t like to know too much because I’m a terrible liar.” — Alyson Hannigan

182. “Lies therefore appear to be an essential, if sometimes unwelcome, component of human interaction.” ― Pamela Myer

183. “Low self-esteem arises when we listen to lies about ourselves.” ― Richard Daly

184. “There is no reason to let those deceit-shaped bullets pierce our chests and destroy our trust. We need to focus on defense instead of learning how to cope after the damage is done.” ― Joshua Moore

185. “The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies.” ― Thomas Jefferson

186. “Each lie is as a chain wrapped around the soul, binding and choking the very life within.” ― Jill.M Tomlinson

187. “Big lies destroy trust and are almost never forgotten or forgiven.” ― Carol Kinsey

188. “The idea that some lies are permissible is hardly unusual.” ― Christopher O.Tollefsen

189. “We say that lying is routine and yet we are surprised when someone lies to our face.” ― Melvyn Fein

190. “The most determined liars may be betrayed by their own behavior.” ― Paul Ekman

191. “We all tend to lie. Almost all of us shade the truth one way or another just enough to make ourselves or others feel better.” ― David Joseph