79 Two-Faced Quotes To Help You Identify Fake People

Being two-faced is not a good thing to be—as you will see from these two-faced quotes!

Let us know the two-faced quote that resonated with you the most in the comment section below.

We throw this word around a lot, and it’s got a few synonyms that go along with it! You might call someone who is two-faced hypocritical, deceitful, or fake.

Research conducted by the University of Texas has found that people can be skilled at hiding their true feelings and intentions, suggesting that two-faced behavior may be more common than we think. 

This highlights the importance of identifying fake people and protecting ourselves from potentially harmful individuals.

What are the benefits of reading these two-faced quotes?

A two-faced person is someone who is insincere or who acts one way in certain situations and then in a completely different way in others.

For example, someone who would be described as two-faced is a person who pretends like you’re their friend but then calls you names as soon as you are out of earshot.

These quotes will help you spot and deal with hypocrisy.

Let’s be honest, though—we can all be a bit hypocritical at times.

Former psychology professor and author Robert Kurzban believes that we are all hypocrites.

According to him, hypocrisy is the natural state of the human mind.

There are so many conflicting beliefs and moral issues that each of us faces.

We do our best to live life in a way where our beliefs and actions are congruent.

However, what happens when one of our deeply held beliefs conflicts with another one of our core beliefs?

We get a bit hypocritical…

While this is a fairly common human element, some of us are more hypocritical than others.

Then there are those people who are downright deceitful, and everything they do seems fake!

These would be the people who we would call two-faced.

Keep reading through these two-faced quotes for some great witty responses you can use the next time you encounter a two-faced person.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

Our inspirational quote category page has even more inspirational and educational quotes.

Two-faced quotes that will fire up your Instagram

According to a study by the University of Cambridge, people who are more adept at lying may be better at identifying when others are lying as well, suggesting that identifying fake people may require a certain level of deception detection skills.

This underscores the importance of developing our ability to detect deception.

1. “You’re just like a penny, two-faced and worthless.” ― Unknown

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2. “If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?” ― Abraham Lincoln

3. “Remember, there are two sides to every story. Kinda like your face!” — Unknown

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4. “If you’re gonna be two-faced, at least make one of them pretty.” ― Marilyn Monroe

5. “I really hate two-faced people. It’s hard to decide which face to slap first.” — Yong Junhyung

6. “The person portrayed and the portrait are two entirely different things.” — Jose Ortega Y. Gasset

7. “Being nice to the people you don’t like isn’t called two-faced, it’s called growing up.” ― Unknown

8. “I’d rather deal with thick-faced people rather than wasting time with two-faced ones.” ― Unknown

9. “When I see you, I think, “I wonder which face she sees when she looks into the mirror.” ― C. JoyBell C.

10. “When people are two-faced, the only thing you’ll know for sure is that you can’t trust either of them.” ― Unknown

Two-faced quotes about hypocrites and hypocrisy

The University of Oxford has found that people who engage in two-faced behavior often exhibit inconsistent behaviors and actions, which can be a red flag for authenticity. 

This highlights the importance of paying attention to a person’s patterns of behavior rather than just isolated incidents.

11. “Hypocrisy has its own elegant symmetry.” — Julie Metz

12. “A hypocrite is a person who—but who isn’t?” ― Don Marquis

13. “Politeness, n: The most acceptable hypocrisy.” — Ambrose Bierce

14. “Don’t trip over your own words and fall into hypocrisy.” — Unknown

15. “Every veil secretly desires to be lifted, except the veil of Hypocrisy.” — Richard Garnett

16. “We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.” — Thomas Fuller

17. “Everybody is a hypocrite. You can’t live on this planet without being a hypocrite.” — Paul Watson

18. “Facebook is where hypocrisy, falseness, double standards, rumors and depression meet up for coffee.” — Unknown

19. “The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.” — William Hazlitt

20. “Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.” — Charles Spurgeon

Two-faced quotes about wearing a mask and pretending

21. “If you want people to love you for who you are, take the mask off.” — Quetzal

22. “Villainy wears many masks; none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.” — Washington Irving

23. “The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” ― Socrates

24. “Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend.” ― Oliver Wendell Holmes

25. “Those who clap you on the back with one hand may clench envy’s mask behind theirs with the other.” ― Stewart Stafford

26. “A masquerade that nice guys can persuade with such charming ways and leave you with such heartache.” — Celia Rouge Hofin

27. “Don’t be fooled by their masks. Fake people eventually show their true colors. Just wait until their mask needs cleaning.” — Unknown

28. “Would you make no distinction between hypocrisy and devotion? Would you give them the same names, and respect the mask as you do the face?” — Moliere

29. “I’m a very positive person, but this whole concept of having to always be nice, always smiling, always happy, that’s not real. It was like I was wearing a mask.” — Alicia Keys

30. “Most people are loved for who they are not! People hide their true colors. They are afraid to show them. They don’t find their true colors beautiful. They find them ugly.” — Thomas Stark

Deep and poetic two-faced quotes

31. “Live truth instead of professing it.” ― Elbert Hubbard

32. “Few love to hear the sins they love to act.” — William Shakespeare

33. “God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.” ― William Shakespeare

34. “Go put your creed into your deed, Nor speak with double tongue.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

35. “Many of us believe that wrongs aren’t wrong if it’s done by nice people like ourselves.” ― Unknown

36. “A smiling assassin will always show you the white of his teeth as he smiles with happiness.” ― Anthony T. Hincks

37. “A man can define many things beautifully in his life, but his character is one beautiful thing that can define him instantly and completely.” ― Anuj Somany

38. “We have two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom preach.” ― Bertrand Russell

39. “I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time.” ― Oscar Wilde

40. “The amazing face of the motherly mammal of a seal near the oceanic shore has more honesty to offer to our world than the unreliable feature of a two-faced politician.” ― Munia Khan

Two-faced quotes from books and writers

41. “Typos and type shifts can change true friends into thorough fiends.” ― Stewart Stafford

42. “Hypocrites preach morality but live a shameful life.” ― Frank Sonnenberg, Listen to Your Conscience: That’s Why You Have One

43. “I think there are two different oceans—the one that plays with you in the summer, and the one that gets so mad in the winter.” — Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care

44. “‘Courtesy of tongue,’ said Rowena, ‘when it is used to veil churlishness of deed, is but a knight’s girdle around the breast of a base clown.’” ― Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

45. “Papi was a man split in two, playing a game against himself. But the problem with that is that in order to win, you also have to lose.” ― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

Longer two-faced quotes from books and writers

46. “He smiled when he talked, a smile that was not completely cold, but was the professional smile of a man who spends his days answering easy questions for people whom he’d rather usher out of his office via catapult.” ― Cherie Priest, Dreadnought

47. “Mom saved those conversations for our daily phone calls because she thought David wouldn’t find out about this other side. But he could see the changes in me when I talked to my mom.” ― Olga Trujillo, The Sum of My Parts: A Survivor’s Story of Dissociative Identity Disorder

48. “Monster was such a subjective word. It was what they called the demons that made up the Regime. Perhaps it was what the demons called them. Yet they all looked alike, so perhaps neither of them were monsters—or perhaps both sides were.” ― Dean F. Wilson, Hopebreaker

49. “How could I reconcile this motherliness with the screeching fury who had pursued me around the kitchen with a whip, flogging me until she was gorged with—what? Vengeance? What was it? Once, when I was in my thirties and reading Freud for the first time, I thought I knew. I am not so sure I know now. But what I knew then was that nobody—not even my mother—was to be trusted in a strange world that showed very little of itself on the surface.” ― Robertson Davies, Fifth Business

50. “My parents were two-faced. To me, they showed no mercy. They preached from theBook of Fallen Children. Commandment 1: The Child Is Always Ungrateful. At eighteen, the free ride would stop, and I’d be dumped into the mess of the world. But in their private moments, they were soft, cowed by love. They critiqued their own parenting skills and thought of all the ways they could help their kids get ahead.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood

Two-Faced Quotes to Illuminate the Nature of Individuals

51. “Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They’re only powerful when you got your back turned.” ― Eminem

52. “Always sleep with one eye open. Never take anything for granted. Your best friends might just be your enemies.” ― Sara Shepherd

53. “Fake friends are like shadows: always near you at your brightest moments, but nowhere to be seen at your darkest hour.” ― Habeeb Akande

54. “A question that always haunts me. Why can’t people just be real? It’s easier being real than pretend being real. Give yourself a chance.” ― Manasa Rao Saarloos

55. “The reason there are so few female politicians is that it is too much trouble to put makeup on two faces.” ― Maureen Murphy

56. “Backstabbing is nothing new. In biblical times, King David experienced the pain of betrayal.” ― Les Parrott

57. “Some girls must get so exhausted putting makeup on two faces every morning.” ― Sarah Moores

58. “Look twice at a two-faced man.” ― Chief Joseph

59. “I’d rather have an enemy who admits that they hate me than a friend who secretly puts me down.” ― Karen Salmansohn

60. “False friendship, like the ivy, decays and ruins the walls it embraces; but true friendship gives new life and animation to the object it supports.” ― Richard Burton

Exploring the World of Two-Faced Quotes

61. “Fake people have an image to maintain, real people just don’t care.” ― Hikigaya Hachiman

62. “Everybody isn’t your friend. Just because they hang around you and laugh with you doesn’t mean they’re for you… People pretend well… At the end of the day real situations expose fake people so pay attention.” ― Trent Shelton

63. “I judge him to be one who is not false save only in policy.” ― E.R. Eddison

64. “Bad friends say nice things to your face, and then turn around and paint you black.” ― John Joclebs Bassey

65. “Perhaps the most crucial choice we make in life is who to trust.” ― Stewart Stafford

66. “Such a disappointment when you defend someone for so long thinking they are different and they turn out to be just like what everyone said.” ― Khayri R.R. Woulfe

67. “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” ― Nathaniel Hawthorne

68. “[He] had the hard eyes of the disciplinarian and the smile of a man who must be tactful and pleasant to many people.” ― A.E. van Vogt

69. “Everyone wanted to see [him] fall so they could devour his remains. As is usually the case, the army of sycophants had turned into a horde of hungry hyenas.” ― Carlos Ruiz Zafón

70. “A circle of friends, doesn’t always keep perfect relationships.” ― Anthony Liccione

71. “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” ― Walter Winchell

72. “People think being alone makes you lonely, but I don’t think that’s true. Being surrounded by the wrong people is the loneliest thing in the world.” ― Kim Culbertson

73. “People may not always tell you how they feel about you, but they will always show you. Pay attention.” ― Keri Hilson

74. “Fake relationships and fake people coming up to me and all of a sudden wanting to be my friend.” ― Jason Ritter.

75. “There is a 100% assurance that what your friend’s enemy tells you about your friend is false. What your failure tells you about your passion is fake. Don’t give up!” ― Israelmore Ayivor.

76. “Folded hands may conceal a dagger, Likewise a foe’s tears.” ― Tiruvalluvar

77. “A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.” ― Arnold H. Glasow.

78. “Having fake friends is like hugging cactus. The tighter you hug, the more pain you get.” ― Riza Prasetyaningsih

79. “It’s hard to tell who has your back, from who has it long enough just to stab you in it.” ― Nicole Richie

How to spot a fake friend

One of the most common places we encounter two-faced people is within our friend groups.

Use these tips to spot a fake friend and recognize the signs of two-faced behavior.

The first thing to consider is whether someone is only around you when they need something.

And when you need a friend, they are usually nowhere to be found. Real friends will be there for you, while fake friends will not.

Then, of course, there is the more obvious and two-faced behavior of talking trash behind your back.

What does two-faced behavior look like?

Sure, we might all gossip a little, but when someone is your friend, they won’t go out of their way to say mean things.

Even worse is when that two-faced behavior turns into straight-up sabotage.

This could be done at work, with other friends, and even in romantic relationships.

The need to sabotage you is born out of the fake friend’s jealousy.

Remember, the behavior of other people is about them and not you.

What stories do you have about two-faced people? Let us know in the comment section below!