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DIPLOMACY, n. Lying in state, or the patriotic art of lying for one's country.


Ambrose Bierce

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DIPLOMACY, n. The patriotic art of lying for one's country.
AMBROSE BIERCE ... the patriotic art of lying for one's country.
AMBROSE BIERCE Diplomacy: lying in state.
OLIVER HERFORD Diplomacy: lying in state.
OLIVER HEREFORD No formal course in fiction-writing can equal a close and observant perusal of the stories of Edgar ...
H. P. LOVECRAFT There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy.” ~ Ambrose ...
J.J. MCAVOY Acting is like lying. The art of lying well. I'm paid to tell elaborate lies.
MEL GIBSON Diplomacy, n. is the art of letting somebody else have your way.
DAVID FROST Statistics is the art of lying by means of figures.
WILHELM STEKEL No lying knight or lying priest ever prospered in any age, but especially not in the dark ones. Men ...
JOHN RUSKIN For the hackneyed art of lying without injury to anyone, Rushbrook, to his shame, was proficient.
ELIZABETH INCHBALD Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.
OSCAR WILDE The rulers of the state are the only persons who ought to have the privilege of lying, either at hom...
PLATO If you're lying, you're lying.
JOHN C. MAXWELL Propaganda is that branch of the art of lying which consists in nearly deceiving your friends withou...
FRANCIS MACDONALD CORNFORD Propaganda is that branch of the art of lying which consists in nearly deceiving your friends withou...
FRANCES CORNFORD What is acting but lying and what is good lying but convincing lying?
LAURENCE OLIVIER, SIR What is acting but lying and what is good lying but convincing lying?
LAURENCE OLIVIER SIR RUBBISH, n. Worthless matter, such as the religions, philosophies, literatures, arts and sciences of...
AMBROSE BIERCE Magic is an art form where you lie and tell people you are lying.
TELLER I lied," I said. ...
"I know it," he said.
"Then do something about it. Do anything, just ...
WILLIAM FAULKNER Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON Faith simply means to see in an opposite or lying way.
DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) The slickest way in the world to lie is to tell the right amount of truth at the right time-and then...
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN You're lying. You never contacted me, or any of the other commissioners.
CHARLES CRAIG The worst part was that I had things I wanted to tell my mother, too many to count, but none of them...
SARAH DESSEN If you claim to be ahead of time, please check the clock. If the clock shows time, then either you a...
APURVA GAGLANI Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason or imagin...
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and...
C. S. LEWIS A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and...
C.S. LEWIS Equivocation is half-way to lying, and lying the whole way to hell
WILLIAM PENN Resorting to lying or cheating in any competition amounts to conceding defeat.
GEORGE HAMMOND Are you a politician or does lying just run in your family?
FANNIE FLAGG The thing was just lying there for me to put in.
BEN STREET Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.
FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others
FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY It is Homer who has chiefly taught other poets the art of telling lies skillfully
ARISTOTLE On the whole, lying is a cheerful affair. Embellishments are intended to give pleasure. People long ...
ISABEL FONSECA Tact is just lying for adults.
CASSANDRA CLARE Euphemism is a euphemism for lying.
BOBBIE GENTRY Euphemism is a euphemism for lying
BOBBIE GENTRY I always say the truth is best even when we find it unpleasant. Any rat in a sewer can lie. It's how...
NANCY FARMER A lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies.
ALFRED LORD TENNYSON A lie with a purpose is one of the worst kind, and the most profitable.
JOSH BILLINGS Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies; And sure he will; for wisdom never lies.
HOMER ("SMYRNS OF CHIOS") Shew me a lyer, and I'le shew thee a theefe. [Show me a liar, and I'll show thee a thief.]
GEORGE HERBERT Halfe the world knowes not how the other halfe lies.
GEORGE HERBERT A liar is always lavish of oaths. [Fr., Un menteur est toujours prodigue de serments.]
PIERRE CORNEILLE Quoth Hudibras, I smell a rat; Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate.
SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Resolved to die in the last dyke of prevarication.
EDMUND BURKE And none speaks false, when there in none to hear.
JAMES BEATTIE As ten millions of circles can never make a square, so the united voice of myriads cannot lend the ...
OLIVER GOLDSMITH One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat only has nine lives.
FINLEY PETER DUNNE For my part getting up seems not so easy By half as lying.
THOMAS HOOD A good memory is needed once we have lied. [Fr., Il faut bonne memoire apres qu'on a menti.]
PIERRE CORNEILLE Matilda told such dreadful lies It made one gasp and stretch one's eyes.
HILLAIRE BELLOC There are people who exaggerate so much that they can't tell the truth without lying.
MARK TWAIN It is hard to tell if a man is telling the truth when you know you would lie if you were in his plac...
H.L. MENCKEN It takes a wise man to handle a lie. A fool had better remain honest.
NORMAN DOUGLAS Never chase a lie. Let it alone, and it will run itself to death. I can work out a good character mu...
LYMAN BEECHER You can best reward a liar by believing nothing of what he says.
ARISTIPPUS A liar should have a good memory.
QUINTILIAN A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a lot of explanations.
SAKI There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.
WILLIAM JAMES Half the truth is often a great lie.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN We payt a person the complement of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.
SAMUEL BUTLER Who dares think one thing, and another tell, My heart detests him as the gates of hell.
HOMER ("SMYRNS OF CHIOS") All men are born truthful and die liars.
VAUVENARGUES Dare to be true: nothing can need a lie; A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby.
GEORGE HERBERT When I err every one can see it, but not when I lie. [Ger., Wenn ich irre kann es jeder bemerken; ...
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE Some truth there was, but dash'd and brew'd with lies, To please the fools, and puzzle all the wis...
JOHN DRYDEN I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: I said in my haste, All men are lia...
BIBLE But that he wrought so high the specious tale, As manifested plainly 'twas a lie. [Lat., Se no...
LUDOVICO ARIOSTO The great mass of people will more easily fall victems to a big lie than to a small one.
ADOLPH HITLER The lie is a condition of life.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to inven...
ALEXANDER POPE The cruelest lies are often told in silence.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON There are a terrible lot of lies going round the world, and the worst of it is that they're true.
WINSTON CHURCHILL A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth and ends with making truth itself appear like ...
WILLIAM SHENSTONE A man would rather have a hundred lies told of him than one truth which he does not wish should be k...
SAMUEL JOHNSON Why would anyone lie? The truth is always more colorful.
JAMES HALL Splendidly mendacious. [Lat., Splendide mendax.]
HORACE (QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS) Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits the all.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, SR. So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge...
CICERO (MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO) You lie--under a mistake-- For this is the most civil sort of lie That can be given to a man's...
PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but The truth in masquerade.
LORD BYRON (GEORGE GORDON NOEL BYRON) I tell him, if a clergyman, he lies! If captains the remark, or critics, make, Why they lie al...
LORD BYRON (GEORGE GORDON NOEL BYRON) Liars are always most disposed to swear. [It., A giurar presti i mentitor son sempre.]
VITTORIO ALFIERI One ought to have a good memory when he has told a lie.
CORNEILLE A liar is not believed even though he tell the truth. [Lat., Mendaci homini ne verum quidem dicent...
CICERO (MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO) No. It's actually not okay. And I hate when people say that, when they say it's okay even though it'...
NANCY WERLIN And this wasn’t lying, not really. It was leaving out.
STEPHEN KING False encouragement is a kind of theft: it steals time, energy, and motivation a person could put to...
SAM HARRIS The tricky part of any lie is trying to figure out how you'd behave if you were innocent.
SUE GRAFTON He was lying; I could hear it the way you hear a tune and you know how it goes. I wondered how many ...
ANNIE BARROWS I was good at fabricating the truth when necessary to protect someone, even myself.
MATT ABRAMS Women are all born with a special, independent organ that allows them to lie. This was Dr. Tokai's p...
HARUKI MURAKAMI And once when we were walking on Bredon Hill, we met a bedraggled and exhausted fox. 'Oh, poor thing...
GEORGE SAYER Bound by the Oath against lying, Aes Sedai [carry] the half-truth, the quarter-truth and the implica...
ROBERT JORDAN Marianne was silent; it was impossible for her to say what she did not feel, however trivial the occ...
JANE AUSTEN

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AMBROSE BIERCE Positive, adj.: Mistaken at the top of one's voice.
AMBROSE BIERCE Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband.
AMBROSE BIERCE Sweater, n. Garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.
AMBROSE BIERCE Sabbath - a weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and wa...
AMBROSE BIERCE The small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify we give the name of knowledge.
AMBROSE BIERCE