Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically—for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist—but then what isn't?

About Quentin Crisp

Quentin Crisp (born Denis Charles Pratt; (1908-12-25)25 December 1908 – (1999-11-21)21 November 1999) was an English raconteur whose personal expression broke social norms of the era. Crisp gained notoriety for her 1968 memoir The Naked Civil Servant, popularized by its 1975 screen adaptation. Her flamboyant personality, fashion, and wit made...

More quotations from Quentin Crisp

Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level.

—Quentin Crisp

victory competition holding

Manners are love in a cool climate.

—Quentin Crisp

The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we have of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.

—Quentin Crisp

The young always have the same problem—how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their elders and copying one another.

—Quentin Crisp

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.

—Quentin Crisp

health

More quotations tagged with “lying”

When a child first catches adults out—when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not have divine intelligence, that their judgments are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just—his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone. And there is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter or sink deeply into green muck. It is a tedious job to build them up again; they never quite shine. And the child's world is never quite whole again. It is an aching kind of growing.

—John Steinbeck

justice wisdom learning intelligence safety gods childhood growth lying parental infallibility

Marge, it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen.

—Homer Simpson

belief lying

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

—Samuel Butler

truth 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

History

23 Nov 2014 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically — for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist — but then what isn't?