175 Lies Quotes & Sayings For Healing And Moving On
If you’ve been lied to, you can find comfort in these lies quotes and be reminded that you are not alone in your pain.
Lies are some of the most powerful forms of betrayal.
So, Why Do We Find It So Hard To Forgive?
Often, we love our liars, and the lie is disguised as the truth.
But really, when it comes to any relationship, the truth is the most important thing for moving forward.
These quotes about lies highlight what it feels like to be betrayed and the importance of truth.
They explore the dangers of lies and the importance of moving on so that maybe, one day, you can forgive.
Lies Quotes About Betrayal
Lying quotes could serve as a motivation for us to stop lying.
1. “I’m not upset that you lied to me. I’m upset that from now on, I can’t believe you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
2. “When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.” — Yevgeny Yevtushenko
3. “Anything is better than lies and deceit!” — Leo Tolstoy
4. “Lying is done with words, and also with silence.” — Adrienne Rich
5. “You don’t lie to the person you love. It’s the most horrible thing to do as a lover.” — Unknown
6. “I am stuffing your mouth with your promises and watching you vomit them out upon my face.” — Anne Sexton
7. “The worst part about being lied to is known that to that person, you weren’t worth the truth.” — Unknown
8. “Better to be hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.” — Khaled Hosseini
9. “We’re all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding.” — Rudyard Kipling
10. “Always sleep with one eye open. Never take anything for granted. Your best friends might just be your enemies.” — Sara Shepard
What is a lie?
While you may think of lying as stating something that isn’t true, you can also lie through your silence or actions that deceive a person.
11. “Every time you lie, it brings me a little closer to goodbye.” — Unknown
12. “The cruelest lies are often told in silence.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
13. “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” — Daniel Patrick Moynihan
14. “Your hypocrisy insults my intelligence.” — Toba Beta
15. “One like has the power to tarnish a thousand truths.” — Al David
16. “Of all the lies I’ve heard, ‘I love you’ was my favorite.” — Unknown
17. “Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.” — Dorothy Allison
18. “There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one’s self on lies and fables.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
19. “Never lie to someone who trust you. Never trust someone who lies to you.” — Unknown
Lies Quotes About The Importance Of Truth
Telling the truth is an important way to build trust with those around you.
20. “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” — Mark Twain
21. “Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him or around him and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect, he ceases to love.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky
22. “If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people.” — Virginia Woolf
23. “It is an occupational hazard that anyone who has spent her life learning how to lie eventually becomes bad at telling the truth.” — Ally Carter
24. “A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.” — Tim O’Brien
25. “Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons.” — Michael Jackson
26. “We’re going to have to let truth scream louder to our souls than the lies that have infected us.” — Beth Moore
27. “Telling the truth and making someone cry is better than telling a lie and making someone smile.” — Unknown
28. “A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.” — Edgar J. Mohn
29. “When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.” — Khaled Hosseini
30. “One lie is enough to question all truth.” — Unknown
Lies Quotes About The Danger Of Deception
These quotes about lying will help you reflect on why it’s so wrong and the damage it can cause.
31. “It’s better to offer no excuse than a bad one.” — George Washington
32. “Lies are a temporary solution to a permanent problem.” — Unknown
33. “Once you reject fear, you will become the perfect candidate to receive and reflect Truth.” ― Suzy Kassem
34. “Oh, what a tangled web we weave… when first we practice to deceive.” — Walter Scott
35. “I guess sometimes you have to lie to find the truth.” — Scott Westerfeld
36. “The truth is messy. It’s raw and uncomfortable. You can’t blame people for preferring lies.” — Holly Black
37. “A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.” — Mark Twain
38. “Lies are neither bad nor good. Like a fire, they can either keep you warm or burn you to death, depending on how they’re used.” — Max Brooks
39. “A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.” — Terry Pratchett
40. “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
41. “False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.” — Plato
42. “He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time till at length it becomes habitual.” — Thomas Jefferson
43. “With lies you may go ahead in the world, but you can never go back.” —Russian Proverb
44. “We tell lies when we are afraid… afraid of what we don’t know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger.” — Tad Williams
Lies Quotes For Forgiveness And Moving On
If you’ve been hurt by a lie, the best thing you can do for yourself, is learn how to move forward in one way or another.
45. “Trying to make sense of crazy will simply drive you crazy. Let it go.” — Karen Salmansohn
46. “Mean people don’t bother me. Mean people who disguise themselves as nice people bother me a lot.” — Cindy Cummings Johnson
47. “Many people would be very scared if they saw the face of their true character in the mirror.” — Unknown
48. “Forgive and forget. It may not change the past, but it gives the future a chance.” — Unknown
49. “Loving words are just a bunch of pretty verbal decorations if they’re not backed up by loving actions.” — Karen Salmansohn
50. “A lie repeated many times doesn’t change the truth.” — Frank Sonenberg
51. “Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.” — Anne Lamott
52. “The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest, and the first to forget is the happiest.” — Unknown
53. “Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you lived through it. Honor your path. Trust your journey. Learn, grow, evolve, become.” — Creig Crippen
54. “Forgiveness is not for the weak. Being able to forgive those who have wronged you is a mark of spiritual strength and confidence. When you forgive, you grow, your heart begins to heal, your back straightens up, your eyes clear so that you can see the road ahead. Anger is a spiritual sickness; but when you forgive, you live.” — Wael Abdelgawad
More Quotes And Sayings About Telling Lies
Lying negatively impacts you, even if you don’t realize it at the time.
55. “The moment you make someone promise anything is the same moment you ask them to lie to you.” — Molly Ringwald
56. “People start to lie more once they start to care less.” — Rain Cooper
57. “There are few reasons for telling the truth, but for lying, the number is infinite.” — Carlos Ruiz Zafón
58. “The more you defend a lie, the angrier you become.” — Mitch Albom
59. “All people know the same truth. Our lives consist of how we choose to distort it.” — Woody Allen
60. “Lying is just letting people believe what they want to be true.” — Megan Whalen Turner
61. “Lies, especially the ones you want to believe, can be convincing.” — Lisa Whittle
62. “Lies are a thing of the physical world. They can’t exist in the spirit world.” — Nnedi Okorafor
63. “Lies are as dangerous as a sword. They can cut to the bone.” — Dhonielle Clayton
64. “Words can lie. See beyond them.”— Victoria Aveyard
Powerful Lies Quotes To Contemplate On
These lying quotes are the arrangement of wise words with deep messages.
65. “Because even if the lie is beautiful, the truth is what you face in the end.” ― Lauren DeStefano
66. “Lies aren’t answers. But they sound so much better than the truth.” ― Alexandra Christo
67. “A lie, sometimes, can be truer than the truth, which is why fiction gets written.” ― Tim O’Brien
68. “I think the biggest lie the devil ever told was that beauty and goodness are the same.” ― Daniel Nayeri
69. “People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt.” ― Otto von Bismarck
70. “Given a choice between life and death, choose life. Given a choice between right and wrong, choose what’s right. And given a choice between a terrible truth and a beautiful lie, choose the truth every time.” ― Mira Grant
71. “Sometimes, some lies that are spoken with high confidence could be more receptive than facts that are spoken with doubt.” ― Toba Beta
72. “It seemed there was no end at all to the lies a person could tell once she got started.” ― Kim Edwards
73. “Isn’t strength the ability to renounce every lie in your heart?” ― Bisco Hatori
74. “If what he said was the truth, it broke her heart. If what he said was a lie, it was broken anyway.” ― Christine Feehan
75. “Telling lies is a bit like tiling bathrooms – if you don’t know how to do it properly, it’s best not to try.” ― Tom Holt
Lies Quotes To Change Your Perspective
The following lying quotes will surely leave a unique impact on you.
76. “Big lies destroy trust and are almost never forgotten or forgiven.” — Carol Kinsey
77. “We say that lying is routine, and yet we are surprised when someone lies to our face.” — Melvyn Fein
78. “Each lie is as a chain wrapped around the soul, binding and choking the very life within.” — Jill.M Tomlinson
79. “The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies.” — Thomas Jefferson
80. “Lies, therefore, appear to be an essential, if sometimes unwelcome, component of human interaction.” — Pamela Mye
81. “Low self-esteem arises when we listen to lies about ourselves.” — Richard Daly
82. “Procrastinators will use lies to explain their delays or failures.” — John Tracy
83. “Most of all, we lie because our sense of safety and self-esteem depends on our feeling in control.” — Susan M. Campbell
84. “Lying affects the kind of choices you make on a daily basis as a result, affects your happiness as a whole.” — Debbie David’s
85. “Escape from the trap of lies is in learning, and improving through constant practice (just like learning to play golf or tennis), the ability to tell the truth.” — Brad Blanton
Lies Quotes To Always Stand By The Truth
These quotes about lying will convict you if you struggle with sticking to the truth.
86. “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” — Charles Spurgeon
87. “He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.” — Alexander Pope
88. “The worst lies are the lies we tell ourselves.” — Richard Bach
89. “Truth exists; only lies are invented.” — Georges Braque
90. “In human relations, kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths.” — Graham Greene
91. “Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart and cannot make a good soup.” — Ludwig van Beethoven
92. “You cannot weave truth on a loom of lies.” — Suzette Haden Elgin
93. “So often the truth is told with hate, and lies are told with love.” — Rita Mae Brown
94. “Hurt me with the truth. Don’t comfort me with a lie.” — Rihanna
95. “But liars we can never trust, / Even when they say what is true. / And he who does one fault at first / And lies to hide it, makes it two.” — Isaac Watts
Lies Quotes To Help You Navigate With The Truth
Soak in these wise words that will guide you in the truth.
96. “A lie has always a certain amount of weight with those who wish to believe it.” — E.W. Rice
97. “To lie a little is not possible; whoever lies, lies a whole lie.” — Victor Hugo
98. “She tells enough white lies to ice a wedding cake.” — Margot Asquith
99. “It was amazing how it worked: the tiniest bit of truth made credible the greatest lies.” ― Jeffrey Eugenides
100. “One swallows the lie that flatters, but sips the bitter truth drop by drop.” ― Denis Diderot
101. “No lie can live forever.” ― Bryan Stevenson
102. “You are enough; you can care for yourself. Stop believing the narcissist’s lies and do the work to heal.” ― Tracy Malone
103. “Indeed, a lie is often more plausible than the truth. “Almost” always. The truth, of course, is never very plausible.” ― Sologub Fedora
104. “Often, the truth is not better than a lie. In fact, our choice is never between truth and lies, but between the consequences that will follow each one.” ― Victoria Mas
105. “People only lie because they are afraid of the truth.” ― Madison Reil
Lies Quotes To Break The Spirit Of Deception
Getting to the root of a lie can be challenging, but it’s essential when overcoming it or learning how to move past it.
106. “The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept.” ― George Carlin
107. “I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.” ― S.E. Hinton
108. “There are three types of lies — lies, damn lies, and statistics.” — Benjamin Disraeli
109. “A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.” ― William Blake
110.“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
111. “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” — Walter Langer
112. “Lies and secrets, Tessa, they are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind.” ― Cassandra Clare
113. “Lies require commitment.” ― Veronica Roth
114. “Man is not what he thinks he is; he is what he hides.” ― André Malraux
115. “The best lies about me are the ones I told.” ― Patrick Rothfuss
Lies Quotes To Proclaim The Truth
Be a person of honor and integrity with the following quotes.
116. “If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero
117. “I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won’t.” ― Mark Twain
118. “Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” ― Spencer Johnson
119. “The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. “One word of truth outweighs the world.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
120. “But I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is… to tell the truth.” ― Howard Zinn
121. “Proclaim the truth and do not be silent through fear.” ― St. Catherine of Siena
122. “Never judge someone’s character based on the words of another.” — Suzy Kassem
123. “The truth is always something that is told, not something that is known.” — Susan Sontag
124. “There is beauty in truth, even if it’s painful.” — José N. Harris
125. “Our biggest fear is not in expressing the truth but that we will be attacked or belittled because of our truth.” — Kelli Wilson
Lies Quotes About The Twisted Truth
White lies, half-truths, and fibs: there are many ways people try to make telling a lie sound not as bad.
126. “Christians don’t tell lies; they just go to church and sing them.” ― A.W. Tozer
127. “Truth can remain silent. Lies must be spoken.” ― Mason Cooley
128. “Lies cannot nourish or protect you. Only freedom from fear, freedom from lies, can make us beautiful, and keep us safe.” ― Anne Lamott
129. “Lies can open up the doors to imagination.” ― Lionel Suggs
130. “Like the layers of an onion, under the first lie is another, and under that another, and they all make you cry.” ― Derrick Jensen
131. “Enough white lies can scorch the earth black.” ― Isaac Marion
132. “Lies are convenient when the truth is unfathomable.” ― Courtney M. Privett
133. “The enemy is fierce, and he would like for you to think that he has on. Don’t believe his lie.” ― Brother Andrew
134. “Often the truth is in front of your face, but your eyes and heart are so full of lies that you can’t see it.” ― Shannon L. Alder
135. “That was, in fact, my life. A whole series of reasonable lies.” ― Stacey Kade
Lies Quotes To Unmask Deception
If you’re not careful, you’ll start to believe your own lies and then the real deception begins.
136. “Lies are like muscles: it takes practice to make them strong.” ― Jeff Ashton
137. “Lies is lying the memory from the truth.” ― Ahmad Rahmat Ramadhan
138. “Mind control is built on lies and manipulation of attachment needs.” —Valerie Sinason
139. “Be careful of the lie you believe about yourself; sooner or later, you will be convinced of it.” ― Saji Ijiyemi
140. “Lying isn’t something you should be proud of, but be grateful if you’ve gained a talent for doing it correctly.” ― Kate C. Conner
141. “Lies are like anchovies in a Caesar salad. You may not be able to see them, but your soul knows they are there.” ― Molly Friedenfeld
142. “Lies are like poison. If you get a little bit in your system, it spreads until it destroys you.” ― Nikki Rae
143. “Belief in the lie is the life of the lie.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin
144. “Remembering lies is a full-time job, one best to quit.” ― Rich DiSilvio
145. “Lie, illusion, deception, she said–was that it truly, the universal language we all speak?” ― Cynthia Ozick
Lies Quotes For Relationships
Honesty is a crucial part of any type of relationship.
146. “If you wear a mask for too long, there will come a time when you can not remove it without removing your face.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo
147. “An undisputed lie will in time become common truth.” ― Herman Ntladi
148. “Why are you expecting different answers by knocking at the same door?” ― ASFM Flayman
149. “Nobody turns on the light to hide.” ― Anastasia Bitkova
150. “If you pile lie upon lie, the pile gets so high the truth is obscured.” ― Clifford Thurlow
151. “If you’re going to have to rehearse a lie, you better be a good actor.” ― T.W. Lawless
152. “We deny truth when it becomes an inconvenience.” ― Allene vanOirschot
153. “Lies and love don’t tend to work together in the same conversation.” ― Melanie A. Smith
154. “Liars are chameleons that take on any colour.” ― Clifford Thurlow
155. “Lies have no permanent hiding place.”― Dr Ikoghene S. Aashikpelokhai
Short But Not So Sweet Quotes About Lying
There is nothing sweet or good about a lie, as shown in the following quotes.
156. “Advertising is legalized lying.” ― H. G. Wells
157. “Lying is the greatest of all sins.” ― Alfred Nobel
158. “Lying can never save us from another lie.” ― Vaclav Havel
159. “The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.” ― John Ruskin
160. “We tell lies, yet it is easy to show that lying is immoral.” ― Epictetus
161. “Acting is like lying. The art of lying well. I’m paid to tell elaborate lies.” ― Mel Gibson
162. “When lying, be emphatic and indignant, thus behaving like your children.” ― William Feather
Thought-provoking lying quotes
These lying quotes will get you thinking and reflecting on your words and those of the people around you.
163. “There are some people so addicted to exaggeration that they can’t tell the truth without lying.” ― Josh Billings
164. “Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
165. “Lying is a cooperative act. Think about it. A lie has no power whatsoever by its mere utterance. Its power emerges when someone else agrees to believe the lie.” ― Pamela Meyer
166. “To be fair, lying is part and parcel of public life. Every politician has lied about something because they are owned by the special interest groups that finance their elections.” ― Peter Schuyler
167. “Lying is like alcoholism. You are always recovering.” ― Steven Soderbergh
168. “There are two ways of lying. One, not telling the truth and the other, making up statistics.” ― Josefina Vazquez Mota
169. “The prime goal of censorship is to promote ignorance, whether it is done via lying and bowdlerized school texts or by attacking individual books.” ― Felice Picano
Lying quotes to make you reflect
Contemplate the seriousness and impact of lying as you read the following quotes.
170. “People can tell the truth much more freely when they’re apparently lying.” ― Eric Idle
171. “If you spend a lot of time lying to people, you think a lot about what the truth means.” ― Penn Jillette
172. “He who observes etiquette but objects to lying is like someone who dresses fashionably but wears no vest.” ― Walter Benjamin
173. “What bothers me the most are the Republicans and the Democrats: they act like little kids. They are lying to real people out here trying to get through life.” ― Charles Barkley
174. “I do myself a greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I tell a lie.” ― Michel de Montaigne
175. “Society can exist only on the basis that there is some amount of polished lying and that no one says exactly what he thinks.” ― Lin Yutang
Which of these lies quotes resonates best with you?
Living with the toxicity of a lie is one of the most harmful things you can do, whether you’re the liar or the person who was lied to.
The quotes above bring out the value of the truth and the feeling of betrayal.
For a valuable relationship, the truth is more important than it’s ever been, and lies are all the more dangerous.
How can we move forward from a lie?
Many people feel that once they’ve been lied to, they can no longer trust the person, and the truth is, you don’t have to.
But for your own heart, forgive; you will feel lighter for it.
What did you learn from these lies quotes and sayings?
Do you have any other helpful quotes to add?
Let us know in the comment section below.
