The charge has been made that the United States has shipped weapons to Iran as ransom payment for the release of American hostages in Lebanon. That the United States undercut its allies and secretly violated American policy against trafficking with terrorists. Those charges are utterly false. Ronald Reagan, televised address
We have had nothing to do with other countries and their shipment of arms. Ronald Reagan, news conference 19th November 1986
We did not – repeat did not – trade weapons or anything else for hostages. Nor will we. Ronald Reagan
‘She’s the most unbelievable actress I have ever met,’ said a woman who worked on Hillary’s Senate campaign. I remember one time at a Women’s Leadership Forum event in New York, thirty of us sat around Hillary, talking about politics. And she said, ‘You know, I love this organization, not just because we sit around and talk about politics, but because of the bonds of friendship forming around us.’ The way she said it, people were riveted by her performance. But I had gotten to know her, and I could tell she didn’t mean it. She has this unbelievable ability to be a liar. She is soulless. Edward Klein, The Truth About Hillary
At that time, for example, it was not known that the Bush/Cheney administration would tell the enormous lies that would lead to millions of deaths, including thousands of American deaths. Besides the lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, the White House after 9/11 ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie about the air at the World Trade Center site, saying that it was safe to breathe. They knew otherwise. Two days before, in fact, the Boston Globe had a story reporting that the air had very high levels of asbestos and other dangerous particles – and the EPA was going to say this. The Bush/Cheney White House ordered them to change their statement and tell people the air is safe to breathe. As a result, rescue workers and clean-up workers went out there without even a flimsy cotton mask on – many of them. And as a result, now about 60% of those workers are ill, and if they have not died already the prediction by many people is that more people will die from the rescue and clean-up than died on 9/11 itself. In the face of this information, it would be difficult to claim that the Bush/Cheney administration would have been morally incapable of orchestrating 9/11 and the subsequent cover up. Professor David Ray Griffin, lecture Boston University 11th April 2009, ‘Time for a Second Look’
When they see that people are just lying, that for them is the most convincing thing. Professor David Ray Griffin, interview Alex Jones 20th October 2009
I had to crawl over debris, body parts, dead people. Tania Head
A known liar should be outlawed in a well-ordered government. George Savile, 1633-95, Political, Moral and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections, 1750
Debts and lies are generally mixed together. Francois Rabelais
They lie about marijuana. Tell you pot-smoking makes you unmotivated. Lie! When you’re high, you can do everything you normally do just as well – you just realize that it’s not worth the fucking effort. There is a difference. Bill Hicks
Each day a few more lies eat into the seed with which we are born, little institutional lies from the print of newspapers, the shock waves of television, and the sentimental cheats of the movie screen. Norman Mailer
Journalists say a thing that they know isn’t true, in the hope that if they keep on saying it long enough it will be true. Arnold Bennett, The Title, 1918
That politician tops his part,
Who readily can lie with art. John Gay, Fables, 1727
All drama is about lies. All drama is about something that’s hidden. A drama starts because a situation becomes imbalanced by a lie. The lie may be something we tell each other or something we think about ourselves, but the lie imbalances a situation. If you’re cheating on your wife the repression of that puts things out of balance; or if you’re someone you think you’re not, and you think you should be further ahead in your job, that neurotic vision takes over your life and you’re plagued by it until you’re cleansed. At the end of a play the lie is revealed. The better the play the more surprising and inevitable the lie is. Aristotle told us this. David Mamet
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying. William Shakespeare, The Hollow Crown: Henry IV part I starring Jeremy Irons & Tom Hiddleston & Alun Armstrong & Joe Armstrong & John Ashton & Will Attenborough & Conrad Asquith & Simon Russell Beale & David Beames & Jim Bywater & Alexandra Clatworthy et al, director Richard Eyre, BBC 2012
I’ll tell you what, Hal. If I tell thee a lie, spit in my face. Call me horse. William Shakespeare, Henry IV I starring Roger Allam & Oliver Cotton & Jamie Parker & Joseph Timms & Sam Crane & Jason Baughan & Patrick Brennan & William Gaunt & Christopher Godwin & Daon Broni et al, director Dominic Dromgoole, Globe Theatre, Sky Arts 2012
Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying. William Shakespeare, Henry IV II, Falstaff, Globe Theatre, Sky Arts 2012
These lies are like the father that begets them; gross as a mountain, open palpable. William Shakespeare, I Henry IV II iv 253
For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
I’ll gild it with the happiest terms I have. ibid. V iv 161
The retort courteous … the quip modest … the reply churlish … the reproof valiant … the countercheck quarrelsome … the lie circumstantial … the lie direct. William Shakespeare, As You Like It V iv 96
’Tis as easy as lying. William Shakespeare, Hamlet III ii 333, Hamlet to Guildenstern & Rosencrantz
What man, I know them, yea,
And what they weigh even to the upmost scruple.
Scambling, outfacing, fashion-mongering boys,
That lie, and cog, and show an outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst,
And this is all. William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing V i 93-100, Antonio to Leonato
Sweet soul, take heed, take heed of perjury.
Thou art on thy deathbed. William Shakespeare, Othello V ii 54-55, Othello
She like a liar gone to burning hell. ibid. V ii 138
If he say so, may his pernicious soul
Rot half a grain a day. He lies to th’ heart. ibid. V ii 162-163
You told a lie, an odious, damned lie,
Upon my soul a lie, a wicked lie. ibid. V ii 187-188
Who having into truth, by telling oft,
Made such a sinner of his memory
To credit his own lie. William Shakespeare, The Tempest I ii @100, Prospero
Advertising is legalised lying. H G Wells
The only way you can control people is to lie to them. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them. L Ron Hubbard
My father and I marched with Martin Luther King junior through the streets of Detroit. Mitt Romney, interview Boston Herald 1978
cf.
He was speaking figuratively, not literally. Eric Fehrnstrom, spokesman for Romney campaign
They don’t understand the value of a good honest lie. Rab C Nesbitt s6e5: Bulbs, BBC 1997
By the time you say you’re his,
Shivering and sighing
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying –
Lady, make a note of this:
One of you is lying. Dorothy Parker, Unfortunate Coincidence, 1937
No lie can live for ever. Alfred North Whitehead
One sometimes sees more clearly in the man who lies than in the man who tells the truth. Truth, like the light, blinds. Lying, on the other hand, is a beautiful twilight, which gives to each object its value. Albert Camus, attributed
Truly, to tell lies is dishonourable;
But when the truth entails tremendous ruin
To speak dishonourably is pardonable. Sophocles, Creusa
Anything is better than lies and deceit! Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina