A thief was a thief, whether he stole a little or a lot.

An animal may be ferocious and cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell a lie.

He who steals a belt buckle pays with his life; he who steals a state gets to be a feudal lord.

When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness.

"There's one way to find out if a man is honest - ask him. If he says "yes" you know he is a crook."

There's one way to find out if a man is honest: ask him; if he says yes, you know he's crooked.

The day is for honest men, the night for thieves.

Lie to a liar, for lies are his coin; steal from a thief, for that is easy; lay a trap for the trickster and catch him at the first attempt, but beware of an honest man. (said by the author to be a Somali saying)

In a world in which everyone cheats, it's the honest man who passes for a charlatan.

Stealing to forgive the killing, because maybe they do out of necessity, but the traitor ever

For time alone shews a man's honesty,
But in one day you may discern his guilt.

He who steals a belt buckle is executed, but he who steals a state becomes a feudal lord.

There are stages in the business of serious life in which to assume is cruel, but to deceive is to destroy; and it is of little consequence, in the conclusion, whether men deceive themselves, or submit, by a kind of mutual consent, to the impositions of each other.

…he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.