Let’s be honest. Canada wasn’t ever cool.

Not everybody is comfortable with the idea that politics is a guilty addiction. But it is.

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

All my stepchildren carried the burden of my fame. Sometimes they would read terrible things about me, and I’d worry about whether it would hurt them. I would tell them: ‚Don’t hide these things from me. I’d rather you ask me these things straight out, and I’ll answer all your questions.‘

The thing about the truth is, not a lot of people can handle it.

The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.

Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.

I can be a cruel person.

If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.

I can’t pretend that I’m brave and that I can beat the whole world.

For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly.

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.

Writers are lampposts and critics are dogs. Ask lampposts what they think about dogs. Does the dog hurt the lamppost?

I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

I don’t think President Trump is a racist.

Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

Let’s be honest – tracking down, rounding up, and deporting millions of people isn’t realistic. Anyone who suggests otherwise isn’t being straight with you. It’s also not who we are as Americans.

I don’t think there’s anything unique about human intelligence.

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

I think Pat Robertson is a terrific fellow.

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.

Half a truth is better than no politics.

Quacks are a part of our culture, and we all fall prey to them. Who among us can say, for sure, that even our own personal physicians are honest and competent?

There’s one way to find out if a man is honest – ask him. If he says, ‚Yes,‘ you know he is a crook.

Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.

No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.

To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education.

The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.

The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.

Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.

I promised myself that I would write as well as I can, tell the truth, not to tell everything I know, but to make sure that everything I tell is true, as I understand it. And to use the eloquence which my language affords me.

If someone lies, well, you had a choice to trust that person or not. I think the way my father raised me, well, he trusted everybody. And that worked for him.

Who’s to say what’s a good voice and not a good voice?

I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don’t trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.

Canada is a balloon-puncturing country. You are not really allowed to be an icon unless you also make an idiot of yourself.

If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.

We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.

My fans don’t feel like I hold anything back from them. They know whatever I’m going through now, they’ll hear about it on a record someday. They’ll hear the real story. There’s a little bit of lag time. It’s not as instant as going on a gossip blog. But it’s much more accurate.

I believe in universal health care. And I am not afraid to say so.

You don’t tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.

Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.

‚Royal Beatings‘ was my first story, and it was published in 1977. But I sent all my early stories to ‚The New Yorker‘ in the 1950s, and then I stopped sending for a long time and sent only to magazines in Canada. ‚The New Yorker‘ sent me nice notes, though – penciled, informal messages. They never signed them. They weren’t terribly encouraging.

My number one thing? Don’t overleverage yourself. Don’t say you can do something when you really can’t.

I have never thought it necessary to patronize the American people.

I see the world in black and white, and I don’t like compromising.

I have no further use for America. I wouldn’t go back there if Jesus Christ was President.

Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.

I never promise anything. I don’t promise anything to my mum. I don’t promise anything to the supporters.

Honesty is the best policy.

Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.

In my opinion, rankings are a very fickle measurement of one’s success and it is best to not get carried away by it.

I change my mind a lot. I usually don’t agree with what I say very much. I’m an awful liar.

A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.

You know, my family and friends have never been yes-men: ‚Yes, you’re doing the right thing, you’re always right.‘ No, they tell me when I’m wrong, and that’s why I’ve been able to stay who I am and stay humble.

People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I earned everything I’ve got.

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.

The best thing is to always keep honest people around, because when you have a bunch of yes men around that know that you’re making a mistake but let you go on with it, that’s when it ruins your mind state as an artist.