Lying Quotes
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See also Deceit and Fraud

 
 

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1,441. Bankruptcy; Fraud; Lying
"The commercial world is very frequently put into confusion by the bankruptcy of merchants, that assumed the splendour of wealth only to obtain the privilege of trading with the stock of other men, and of contracting debts which nothing but lucky casualties could enable them to pay; till after having supported their appearance a while by tumultuary magnificence of boundless traffic, they sink at once, and drag down into poverty those whom their equipages had induced to trust them."
Johnson: Rambler #189 (January 7, 1752)
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1,442. Lying; Posturing
"The traveller who describes cities which he has never seen; the squire who, at his return from London, tells of his intimacy with nobles, to whom he has only bowed in the park or coffee-house; the author who entertains his admirers with stories of the assistance which he gives to wits of a higher rank; the city dame who talks of her visits to at great houses where she happens to know the cookmaid, are surely such harmless animals as truth herself may be content to despise without desiring to hurt them."
Johnson: Rambler #189 (January 7, 1752)
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1,516. Lying
"The character of a liar is at once so hateful and contemptible, that even of those who have lost their virtue it might be expected that from the violation of truth they should be restrained by their pride."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)
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1,517. Lying
"The liar, and only the liar, is invariably and universally despised, abandoned, and disowned: he has no domestick consolations, which he can oppose to censure of mankind; he can retire to no fraternity, where his crimes may stand in the place of virtues; but is given up to the hisses of the multitude, without friend or apologist."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)
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1,521. Lying
"The present age abounds with a race of liars who are content with the consciousness of falsehood, and whose pride is to deceive others without any gain or glory to themselves."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)
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1,522. Deterrence; Lying
"I am, indeed, far from desiring to increase in this kingdom the number of executions; yet I cannot but think, that they who destroy the confidence of society, weaken the credit of intelligence, and interrupt the security of life; harass the delicate with shame, and perplex the timorous with alarms; might very properly be awakened to a sense of their crimes, by denunciations of a whipping-post or pillory: since many are so insensible of right and wrong, that they have no standard of action but the law; nor feel guilt, but as they dread punishment."
Johnson: Adventurer #50 (April 28, 1753)
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