Who dares think one thing, and another tell,
My heart detests him as the gates of hell.[Ἐχθρὸς γάρ μοι κεῖνος ὁμῶς Ἀΐδαο πύλῃσιν
ὅς χ’ ἕτερον μὲν κεύθῃ ἐνὶ φρεσίν, ἄλλο δὲ εἴπῃ.]Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Iliad [Ἰλιάς], Book 9, l. 312ff (9.312-313) [Achilles to Odysseus] (c. 750 BC) [tr. Pope (1715-20)]
(Source)
Original Greek. Alt. trans.:
For, like hell mouth I loath, Who holds not in his words and thoughts one indistinguish’d troth. [tr. Chapman (1611), ll. 300-01]
For I abhor the man, not more the gates Of hell itself, whose words belie his heart. [tr. Cowper (1791), ll. 385-86]
Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is he who conceals one thing in his mind and utters another. [tr. Buckley (1860)]
Him as the gates of hell my soul abhors,
Whose outward words his inmost thoughts conceal.
[tr. Derby (1864), ll. 373-74]
For hateful to me even as the gates of hell is he that hideth one thing in his heart and uttereth another. [tr. Leaf/Lang/Myers (1891)]
Him do I hate even as the gates of hell who says one thing while he hides another in his heart.
[tr. Butler (1898)]
I hate
as I hate Hell's own gate that man who hides
one thought within him while he speaks another.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1974), l. 381ff]I hate that man like the very Gates of Death
who says one thing but hides another in his heart.
[tr. Fagles (1990), ll. 378-79]
Quotations about:
liar
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
It would never come into their [the masses’] heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.
Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) German leader
Mein Kampf [My Struggle], Vol. 1, ch. 10 (1925)
The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse; always harder. A young liar will be an old one; and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #225 (17 May 1750)
(Source)
All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Little Book in C Major (1916)
Every life is its own excuse for being, and to deny or refute the untrue things that are said of you is an error in judgment. All wrong recoils upon the doer, and the man who makes wrong statements about others is himself to be pitied, not the man he vilifies. It is better to be lied about than to lie. At the last no one can harm us but ourselves.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
The Roycroft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams (1923)
(Source)
The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Way of All Flesh, ch. 39 (1903)
If falsehood, like truth, had but one face, we would be more on equal terms. For we would consider the contrary of what the liar said to be certain. But the opposite of truth has a hundred thousand faces and an infinite field.
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
“Of Liars,” Essays, Vol. I, ch. 9 (1575)
Alt trans. [C. Cotton (1877)]: "If falsehood had, like truth, but one face only, we should be upon better terms; for we should then take for certain the contrary to what the liar says: but the reverse of truth has a hundred thousand forms, and a field indefinite, without bound or limit."
Alt trans. [Florio (1603)]: "If a lie had no more faces but one, as truth had, we should be in farre better termes than we are: For whatsoever a lier should say, we would take it in a contrarie sense. But the opposite of truth has many shapes, and an undefinite field."
The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don’t know when it’s through if you are a crook or a martyr.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
“Helping Girls With Their Income Tax,” syndicated column (7 Apr 1923)
(Source)
Collected by Rogers as "Helping the Girls with Their Income Taxes," The Illiterate Digest (1924).
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 1, Act 5, sc. 4, l. 148ff [Falstaff] (1597)
(Source)
Please don’t lie to me, unless you’re absolutely sure I’ll never find out the truth.
Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American epigramist, aphorist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots
MERLIN: When a man lies, he murders some part of the world.
John Boorman (b. 1933) English film director, writer
Excalibur (1981) [with Rospo Pallenburg]
