Michel de Montaigne Lying Quotations

It has never occurred to me to wish for empire or royalty, nor for the eminence of those high and commanding fortunes. My aim lies not in that direction; I love myself too well.

~The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them ~

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.

I have ever loved to repose myself, whether sitting or lying, with my heels as high or higher than my head.

He who is not sure of his memory, should not undertake the trade of lying.

The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.

It is not without good reason, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.

Lying is a terrible vice, it testifies that one despises God, but fears men.

What kind of truth is it which has these mountains as its boundary and is a lie beyond them?

The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre.

Unless a man feels he has a good enough memory, he should never venture to lie.

I do myself a greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I tell a lie.

The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and lived little; attend to it while you are in it. It lies in your will, not in the number of years, for you to have lived enough.

Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself.

In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our word.

It is far more probable that our senses should deceive us, than that an old woman should be carried up a chimney on a broom stick; and that it is far less astonishing that witnesses should lie, than that witches should perform the acts that were alleged.

Lying is a disgraceful vice, and one that Plutarch paints in most disgraceful colors, when he says that it is "affording testimony that one first despises God, and then fears men." It is not possible more happily to describe its horrible, disgusting, and abandoned nature; for can we imagine anything more vile than to be cowards with regard to men, and brave with regard to God.

After a tongue has once got the knack of lying, it is not to be imagined how impossible almost it is to reclaim it. Whence it comes to pass, that we see some men, who are otherwise very honest, so subject to this vice.

In my opinion it is the happy living, and not, as Antisthenes said, the happy lying, in which human happiness consists.

A liar would be brave toward God, while he is a coward toward men; for a lie faces God, and shrinks from man.