Dishonesty is to act without honesty. It is used to describe a lack of probity, cheating, lying, or deliberately withholding information, or being deliberately deceptive or a lack in integrity, knavishness, perfidiosity, corruption or treacherousness. Profoundly inspirational dishonesty quotes will challenge the way you think, and make your life worth living.
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Famous Dishonesty Quotes
Honesty is of God and dishonesty of the devil; the devil was a liar from the beginning. — Joseph B. Wirthlin
Dishonesty, lack of integrity catches up with you. — Dawn Steel
Time will inevitably uncover dishonesty and lies; history has no place for them. — Norodom Sihanouk
We are never so easily deceived as when we imagine we are deceiving others. — Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase. — Dave Ramsey
Honesty is something you can’t wear out. — Waylon Jennings
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
― Plato
Hatred and dishonesty generally arises from fear of being deceived. — Luc de Clapiers
Nothing is more deceitful…than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast. — Jane Austen
Dishonesty of any kind will create a blemish. — Gordon B. Hinckley
I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don’t trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it. — Charles Dickens
Just because something isn’t a lie does not mean that it isn’t deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction. — Criss Jami
We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves. — Blaise Pascal
If there were a cry of ‘stop thief!’ we would all stand still. — Laura Ingalls Wilder
A divine falsehood is more powerful than any human truth. — Mikhail Bakunin
If we are true to ourselves, we can not be false to anyone. — Shakespeare
People want to work with somebody who feels shame, who worries about the perceptions of others. Dishonesty is something we don’t like in others. — Frans De Waal
Falsehood is the jockey of misfortune. — Jean Giraudoux
The trouble with lying and deceiving is that their efficiency depends entirely upon a clear notion of the truth that the liar and deceiver wishes to hide. — Hannah Arendt
Never hide things from hardcore thinkers. They get more aggravated, more provoked by confusion than the most painful truths. ― Criss Jami
One is what one is, and the dishonesty of hiding behind a degree, or a title, or any manner and collection of words, is still exactly that: dishonest. — Kay Redfield Jamison
Lying is done with words and also with silence. — Adrienne Rich
For instance, a strange reflection suddenly occurred to me, that if I had lived before on the moon or on Mars and there had committed the most disgraceful and dishonorable action and had there been put to such shame and ignominy as one can only conceive and realize in dreams, in nightmares, and if, finding myself afterwards on earth, I were able to retain the memory of what I had done on the other planet and at the same time knew that I should never, under any circumstances, return there, then looking from the earth to the moon-should I care or not? — Fyodor Dostoevsky
Dishonesty is the raw material not of quacks only, but also in great part of dupes. — Thomas Carlyle
Lying about anything is the cruelest thing in the world you could ever do. Be who you are. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. It never works. — Summer Glau
Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them. ― Bertrand Russell
Falsehood always endeavors to copy the mien and attitude of truth. — Samuel Johnson
The eleventh commandment, Thou shalt not be found out is despicable, but nevertheless, it is the one thing you can never get away from. — Emily Post
Falsehood is a perennial spring. — Edmund Burke
We make it very, very clear that we do not condone dishonesty or the use of public funds for anything other than University purposes, — Leonard Sandridge
It is a true saying that One falsehood leads easily to another. — Cicero
When being dishonest, people can still tell the truth. Be mindful of the treacherous that do not lie. — Eric Parslow
A lie is an abomination unto the Lord, and a very present help in trouble. — Adlai Stevenson
Dishonesty makes me feel vulnerable. — Melissa Rauch
Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak… — Robert Frost
Dishonesty is so grasping it would deceive God himself, were it possible. — George Bancroft
Lies and Dishonesty Quotes
There is nothing worse than words of kindness that lie. — Juvenal
I despise the rituals of fake friendship. I wish we could just claw each other’s eyes out and call it a day; instead we put on huge radiant smiles and spout compliments until our teeth hurt from the saccharine sweetness of it all. ― Jody Gehrman
There’s a degree of deception in silence. — Don Lemon
The most common sort of lie is the one uttered to one’s self. — Friedrich Nietzsche
Lack of clarity is always a sign of dishonesty. — Celia Green
There’s something different about looking someone in the eyes and doing something dishonest to doing it over the phone or screen. — Justin Welby
The price of dishonesty is self-destruction. — Rita Mae Brown
Lying is a sin destructive to society; for there is no trade where there is no trust, and there is no trust where there is no truth. — Wellins Calcott
Someone said there’s no such thing as an honest man. He was probably a con man. — Frank
Lying is the only art form that the public sanctions and instinctively prefers to reality. — Jean Cocteau
The worst kind of lying I’ve ever done is keeping things from people. — Elijah Wood
It is not only by dint of lying to others, but also of lying to ourselves, that we cease to notice that we are lying. — Marcel Proust
And not only the pride of intellect, but the stupidity of intellect. And, above all, the dishonesty, yes, the dishonesty of intellect. Yes, indeed, the dishonesty and trickery of intellect. — Leo Tolstoy
There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as ‘moral indignation,’ which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue. ― Erich Fromm
In a scene where nobody with any ambition is really what he appears to be, there’s not much risk in acting like a king-hell freak. — Hunter S. Thompson
My shining dishonesty will be the salvation of me. — Diana Wynne Jones
Falsehood is invariably the child of fear in one form or another. — Aleister Crowley
The deception of others is almost always rooted in the deception of ourselves. — Bill W
Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men. — Michel de Montaigne
After all, it was the nature of twentieth-century capitalism that everyone should scam everyone, and he who scammed the most ultimately won the game. On that basis, I was the undefeated world champ. — Jordan Belfort
It’s better to be sworn to an honest fool than to a lying scholar. — Christopher Paolini
You can’t con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you don’t deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on. — Donald Trump
Whoever is detected in a shameful fraud is ever after not believed even if they speak the truth. — Phaedrus
Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad. ― Henry Kissinger
Sentimentality , the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel. — James A. Baldwin
I didn’t know I was mad about anything. I guess if the New York Times says I am, I must be. — Mark Cuban
Quotes on Dishonesty and Cheating
It is never right to compromise with dishonesty. — Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
I knowed very well why [the words] wouldn’t come. It was because my heart warn’t right; it was because I warn’t square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting on to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. — Mark Twain
By open words A scheme of villainy is soon bewrayed. — Sophocles
The art of using deceit and cunning grow continually weaker and less effective to the user. — John Tillotson
Being dishonest to himself is the biggest crime any human can make. — Loknath
I’ve come to believe he (Clinton) needs a certain level of violence in this country. He is willing to accept a certain level of killing to further his political agenda. The vice president, too. How else can you explain this dishonesty we get out of the administration? — Wayne LaPierre
Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego, and lessens the frictions of social contacts. — Clare Boothe Luce
And, after all, what is a lie? ‘Tis but the truth in masquerade. — Jodi Picoult
Saying what you believe others want to hear is, of course, a form of lying. — Karl Ove Knausgard
I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world. — Charlotte Bronte
Lying does exist in crazy forms. — Chris Pine
It’s been my observation, after years in the [insurance] business, that a certain percent of the population simply can’t resist the urge to cheat. — Sue Grafton
False face must hide what the false heart doth know. — Shakespeare
Lying is not only a defense mechanism; it’s also a coping mechanism and a survival technique. — Monica Raymund
There are people who exaggerate so much that they can’t tell the truth without lying. — Mark Twain
This culture of mandatory happiness actually promotes dishonesty and more suffering. — Tullian Tchividjian
Fancy language, like poplin, too often conceals an eczema. — Albert Camus
”They say” is often a great liar. — Proverb
Political advertising ought to be stopped. It’s the only really dishonest kind of advertising that’s left. It’s totally dishonest. — David Ogilvy
Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art. — Oscar Wilde
I’ll be bad; but anyway not a liar, a cheat. — Leo Tolstoy
It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance. — Thomas Paine
I Hate Dishonesty Quotes
Lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable. — Evans
Though analogy is often misleading, it is the least misleading thing we have. — Samuel Butler
Anything’s better than lying and deceit. — Leo Tolstoy
So when you hear about Hillary’s [Clinton] dishonesty, or the emails, or taking millions from the Saudis and other Middle Eastern dictatorships – remember, this is not about politics. — Newt Gingrich
Exaggeration is a blood relation to falsehood and nearly as blamable. — Hosea Ballou
I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse. — Oscar Wilde
Don’t blame a child for being dishonest unless you have determined that they really have not been telling the truth. Have any discussion involving dishonesty privately, not in front of the whole class or the whole family, especially siblings. — Jacqui Rivait
The investigation of U.S. seminaries for ‘evidence of homosexuality’ continues the pattern of smoke-screening the church leaders have employed since the clergy child abuse crisis began. Why not look instead for evidence of cowardice, secrecy and dishonesty — the traits displayed by so many bishops who magnified the crisis into a public scandal? — Francis DeBernardo
There was certainly a dishonesty there that I think is totally regrettable and inexcusable. The ringleading, the bullying: not totally true. — Lance Armstrong
I have been very concerned about media bias and the total dishonesty of the press. I think new media is a great way to get out the truth. — Donald Trump
The fear of loss, in one form or another, is the motivator behind all conscious and unconscious dishonesties. — David Whyte
All stealing is comparative. If you come to absolutes, pray who does not steal. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Why not look instead for evidence of cowardice, secrecy, and dishonesty — the traits displayed by so many bishops which magnified the crisis into a public scandal? — Francis DeBernardo
All deception in the course of life is indeed nothing else but a lie reduced to practice, and falsehood passing from words into things. — Robert Southey
That lies should be necessary to life is part and parcel of the terrible and questionable character of existence. — Friedrich Nietzsche
The big cop-out would be to accept popularity rather than opting to try to create potent work. It’s so easy to do the popular thing, the expected thing, and that’s where you start to cheat yourself – and your fans, in the end – because there’s an inherent dishonesty in pandering and dishing up what everyone’s expecting. — The Edge
Deception may give us what we want for the present, but it will always take it away in the end. — Rachel Hawthorne
For the most part fraud in the end secures for its companions repentance and shame. — Charles Simmons
To be without guile is to be free of deceit, cunning, hypocrisy, and dishonesty in thought or action. — Joseph B. Wirthlin
Dishonesty is like a boomerang. About the time you think all is well, it hits you in the back of the head. — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Honesty is for the most par less profitable than dishonesty. — Plato
To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease. — Lao-Tzu
He (Brown) is a man with grandiose schemes, no doubt attracted by the glamour of sporting clubs, but he has been prepared to use dishonesty to keep these afloat by ignoring the rules of business. — John Burgess
I have so great a contempt and detestation for meanness, that I could sooner make a friend of one who had committed murder, than of a person who could be capable, in any instance, of the former vice. Under meanness, I comprehend dishonesty; under dishonesty, ingratitude; under ingratitude, irreligion; and under this latter, every species of vice and immorality in human nature. — Laurence Sterne
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil. — Socrates
She who is more ashamed of dishonesty than of poverty will not be easily overcome. — Samuel Richardson
Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame deeply. — F. Scott Fitzgerald
He who indulges in falsehood will find the paths of paradise shut to him. — Abu Bakr
