‘I’d tell you an outright lie, sir.' (Th)
'What would you do if I asked you an outright question, Vimes?’
‘I’d tell you an outright lie, sir.' (Th)
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Sometimes the truth is arrived at by adding all the little lies together and deducting them from the totality of what is known. (GP)
'Too many lies and there’s no truth to go back to.' (MR)
'You’re a liar, sarge,’ said Polly. ‘Best I’ve ever heard. One last lie pays for all!' (MR)
'It’s not lying when you do it to officers!' (MR)
'... he might be worth listening to. Even if you think he’ll only tell us lies. Because sometimes, sir, the way people tell you lies, if they tell you enough lies, well, they sort of…show you what shape the truth is, sir.' (MR)
Lu-Tze sighed. ‘Y’know, most of what you get taught is lies. It has to be. Sometimes if you get the truth all at once,you can’t understand it.' (TOT)
'... a lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on ...' (TT)
The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head. (H)
Walter's face was an agony of indecision but, erratic though his thinking might have been, it was no match for Nanny Ogg’s meretricious duplicity. He was up against a mind that regarded truth as a reference point but certainly not as a shackle. Nanny Ogg could think her way through a corkscrew in a tornado without touching the sides. (Ma)
'Are you really an outrageous liar?’
‘No.’ ‘Why are you trying to rob coaches, then?’ ‘I am afraid I was waylaid by bandits.’ ‘But it says here,’ said Ridcully, ‘that you are a finest swordsman.’ ‘I was outnumbered.’ ‘How many of them were there?’ ‘Three million.' (LL) Nanny Ogg had a pragmatic attitude to the truth; she told it if it was convenient and she couldn’t be bothered to make up something more interesting. (LL)
'We died for lies, for centuries we died for lies.’ He waved a hand towards the god. ‘Now we’ve got a truth to die for!’
‘No. Men should die for lies. But the truth is too precious to die for.' (SG) It didn’t matter if you fooled yourself provided you didn’t let yourself know it, and did it well. (SG)
Brutha had never been any good at lying. The truth itself had always seemed so incomprehensible that complicating things even further had always been beyond him. (SG)
'But I read where she was the most beautiful –’
‘Ah well,’ said the sergeant. ‘If you’re going to go around reading -’ ‘The thing is,’ said Rincewind quickly, ‘it’s what they call dramatic necessity. No-one’s going to be interested in a war fought over a, a quite pleasant lady, moderately attractive in a good light. Are they?’ Eric was nearly in tears. ‘But it said her face launched a thousand ships -’ ‘That’s what you call metaphor,’said Rincewind. ‘Lying,’ the sergeant explained, kindly. (E) She knew there was such a thing as heroic odds. Songs and ballads and stories and poems were full of stories about one person single-handedly taking on and defeating a vast number of enemies.
Only now was it dawning on her that the trouble was that they were songs and ballads and stories and poems because they dealt with things that were, not to put too fine a point on it, untrue. She couldn’t now she had time to think about it, ever remember an example from history. (LL) 'I’m a world-famous liar.’
‘Is that true?’ ‘No.’ ‘What about you being the world’s greatest lover?’ There was silence for a while. ‘Well maybe I’m only No. 2,’ said Casanunda. ‘But I try harder.' (WA) 'I think he played a lute. Or maybe it was a lyre.’
‘Ach, weel, that’ll suit us fine,’ said Daft Wullie. ‘We’re experts at looting an’ then lyin’ aboot it.' (W) Polly had been soldiering for only a couple of days, but already an instinct had developed. In summary, it was this: lie to
officers. (MR) Ponder had invented a little system he’d called, in the privacy of his head, Lies-to-Wizards. It was for their own good, he told himself. There was no point in telling your bosses everything; they were busy men, they didn’t want explanations. There was no point in burdening them. What they wanted was little stories that they felt they could understand, and then they’d go away and stop worrying. (SODW)
He was by nature an honest person, because apart from anything else, lying was always too complicated. (JD)
Whoever said you can’t fool an honest man wasn’t one. (MM)
There is a saying ‘You can’t fool an honest man’ which is much quoted by people who make a profitable living by fooling
honest men. (GP) Never lie, but you don’t always have to be honest. (HFS)
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The world has lost Sir Terry, and it's so much the poorer for that. Vale Sir Terry. Categories
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