The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.

—Samuel Butler

About Samuel Butler

Portrait of Samuel Butler

Samuel Butler (4 December 1835 – 18 June 1902) was an English novelist and critic, best known for the satirical utopian novel Erewhon (1872) and the semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh (published posthumously in 1903 with substantial revisions and published in its original form in 1964 as Ernest...

More quotations from Samuel Butler

The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.

—Samuel Butler

The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.

—Samuel Butler

ignorance character vanity price arrogance

People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or amiable.

—Samuel Butler

kindness people perception taste cleverness

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

—Samuel Butler

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

—Samuel Butler

truth lies foolishness

More quotations tagged with “lying”

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

—Samuel Johnson

knowledge belief lies lying intimacy

If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

—Abraham Lincoln

humor deception lying

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.

—H. L. Mencken

honesty truth belief lying deceit

His lying is not contingent on who you are or what you do. His lying is not your fault. Lying is his choice and his problem, and if he makes that choice with you, he will make it with any other woman he’s with.

—Susan Forward in When Your Lover Is a Liar

relationships lying

Everybody lies, but it doesn't matter because nobody listens.

listening lying

History

24 Jun 2014 Added