Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.
– Mark Twain “Chronicle of Young Satan”
In war-time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies. – Winston Churchill
We are bred up to feel it a disgrace ever to succeed by falsehood . . . we will keep hammering along with the conviction that honesty is the best policy, and that truth always wins in the long run. These pretty little sentiments do well for a child’s copy book, but a man who acts on them had better sheathe his sword forever. – Sir Garnet Wolsely — Former Commander-in-Chief of the British Army
When war enters a country it produces lies like sand. – Anonymous
All warfare is based on deception. – Sun Tzu, The Art of War
The warring state permits itself every such misdeed, every such act of violence, as would disgrace the individual man. It practices not only the accepted strategies, but also deliberate lying and deception against the enemy… [It maintains] an excess of secrecy, and a censorship of news and expressions of opinion… It absolves itself from the guarantees and contracts it had formed with other states, and makes unabashed confession of its rapacity and lust for power, which the private individual is then called upon to sanction in the name of patriotism. – Richard Barnett
People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election. – Otto von Bismarck
The great mass of the people…will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one. – Adolph Hitler
By way of deception, thou shalt do war – Motto of the Mossad (Israel’s secret police)