Is Voldemort a liar?

Question

From a comment in another question:

One should never assume that any given statement by Voldemort is truthful. Indeed, because he deliberately spews lies and distortions all the time, one should be ready to assume that the exact opposite of what Voldemort is saying may be the truth.

Seems obvious right? He certainly seems to be a sociopath, and lying is a component of that diagnosis, however, in thinking about when we actually see Voldemort communicate, does he in fact, ever lie - especially to Harry?

The only time I can think that we see an actual lie is in Chamber of Secrets, but that is technically Tom Riddle, not the fully realized Voldemort (even though, yes, he had taken on the name)

Answer 1

From Chapter 33 of HP7, "The Flaw in the Plan":

Voldemort and company, with Hagrid carrying supposedly-dead Harry, approach Hogwarts in full victory mode. After the defenders come out of the castle and line up facing the Death Eaters, Voldemort announces to the defenders that

"He [Harry] was killed while trying to sneak out of the castle grounds," said Voldemort, and there was relish in his voice for the lie, "killed while trying to save himself."

Obviously, JKR wants to make sure that readers note that Voldemort is lying. In this instance, the purpose of the lie appears to be to deceive and further demoralize the defenders of Hogwarts.

Two more examples of significant lies, revealed in HBP:

1. An act of deception following Voldemort's murders of his own father and paternal grandparents, viz., placing a memory charm on Morfin Gaunt (Voldemort's maternal uncle) so that Morfin would "confess" to having committed the murders of the three Riddles.
2. Another act of deception following Voldemort's murder of Hepzibah Smith and the thefts of Helga Hufflepuff's cup and Salazar Slytherin's locket, viz., disguising the murder as an accidental poisoning committed by Hepzibah's aging house elf Hokey.

Answer 2

He lies the very first time he meets Harry in PS. Harry calls him out.

"Don't be a fool," snarled the face. "Better save your own life and join me... or you'll meet the same end as your parents.... They died begging me for mercy..."

"LIAR!" Harry shouted suddenly.

Quirrell was walking backward at him, so that Voldemort could still see him. The evil face was now smiling.

"How touching..." it hissed. "I always value bravery... Yes, boy, your parents were brave.... I killed your father first; and he put up a courageous fight... but your mother needn't have died... she was trying to protect you.... Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."

Answer 3

Voldemort lied to Professor Slughorn about his intentions to make horcruxes, which we see in Slughorn's memory in the pensieve.

Slughorn looked deeply troubled now: he was gazing at Riddle as though he had never seen him plainly before, and Harry could tell that he was regretting entering into the conversation at all.
"Of course," he muttered, "this is all hypothetical, what we're discussing, isn't it? All academic..."
"Yes, sir, of course," said Riddle quickly.
_{Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Chapter 23: Horcruxes}

Answer 4

The only time I can think of in which Lord Voldemort directly lied to somebody was when he used legilimency to plant the fake vision of Sirius' capture in Harry's mind in OotP. And even then, that's not a direct quote, just an action. Though, I feel I should mention that in CoS, Tom Riddle in a sense IS Lord Voldemort, because Tom Riddle is the manifestation of the piece of Voldemort's soul that resides within the diary. So technically, you could say that, including the CoS lie, he has lied twice. Which isn't much, when you think about it. Although:

Dear Voldemort, A couple of lies would take care of that. Sincerely, Pinocchio.

Maybe if he had lied more, he'd still have a nose XD

EDIT: Upon further research, I have found a small section in Philosopher's stone, https://expatronum.wordpress.com/2010/09/11/the-life-and-lies-of-albus-dumbledore/ in which Voldemort tells a couple of small lies in an attempt to flatter Harry into handing over the stone. I'll keep looking and see if I can find any more examples, but honestly, looking for "Voldemort" and "Lie" always brings up the "Why didn't Voldemort know Narcissa was lying?" question, so finding what we're looking for is actually quite difficult.

Honestly, I just feel like Voldemort is very particular with his words, in such a way that you can't generally say outright that he's lying, but at the same time you can never be sure he's really telling the truth. Much in the same way that Dumbledore speaks, which I think draws a nice little parallel between the two characters.

I also feel like I should mention that, during my research, before finding pages containing direct quotes from both books and movies, I found a "VoldemortxReader" fanfiction in which Voldemort was cheating and lying about it. That's how little he really lies in the franchise. He lies more in fanfiction.

Answer 5

This was alluded to in the question, but as a teenager, Voldemort/Tom Riddle framed Hagrid for opening the Chamber of Secrets (leading to the latter's expulsion). Technically, the book doesn't actually say that that he lied outright at any point as part of that (he actually may not have technically lied), but he was certainly being highly (and deliberately) deceptive.

In the movie at least, he gave Slughorn some pineapple; when Slughorn asked how he knew that that was his favorite, Tom told him it was intuition. (Presumably, it was actually Legilimency).

One possible example: in the first book, he asks Harry to join him. There's debate about whether this was a real offer or if Voldemort was just trying to manipulate him into giving him the Sorcerer's Stone and planned on killing him right away if he agreed.

Also worth noting: people routinely lie and deceive on his orders (e.g. Barty Crouch Jr. pretending to be Mad-Eye Moody throughout most of the 4th book). Technically, Voldemort himself isn't lying, but he ordered Barty Crouch Jr. to do so, which isn't really all that different.