WORLD BEST LIARS.
10. Herodotus
![herodotus](http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/herodotus-450x600.jpg)
This ancient Greek historian recorded the events surrounding the Greco-Persian war in the fifth century B.C., as seen in such films as 300. A contemporary described him as “the father of lies” and one esteemed historian of the times, named Thuycides, called him a mere “storyteller.” In The Cartoon History of the Universe, Prof. Larry Gonick revealed that those lovely quotes from Spartan king Leonidas like “come and get them!” when they were told to surrender their weapons, or the responding to the Persian threat that their arrows would blot out the sun with, “then we shall fight in the shade” were 100% fabricated. Probably no other historian’s lies have done so much to entertain audiences.
9. Robert Ripley
![Robert-Ripley](http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Robert-Ripley-497x600.jpg)
When a person starts a cultural institution called “Believe It or Not,” you have to expect that the truth will not be a barrier to a good story. Goodness knows the empire his novelty facts publications that started in 1929 (with a complaint about America’s lack of national anthem) showed that the scheme worked. By 1932, he’d been voted “most popular man in America,” and had films, magazines, comic strips, and a radio show devoted to him. There are now museums around the world devoted to him, and Ripley exhibitions are covered by the New York Times. Unfortunately, his legacy introduced such nonsense into the public psyche as the idea that Albert Einstein flunked math as a child.
8. Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin
![Robert-houdin](http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Robert-houdin.jpg)
In 1856, French authorities in Algeria were threatened by a revolt. Learning that the rebel forces were being influenced by the alleged magical abilities of their mullahs (the Islamic equivalent of priests,) Robert-Houdin was dispatched to one-up their magic. Doing such tricks as the infamous bullet catch, and one with an electromagnet (where he made strong men seem too weak to lift containers with metal,) he nonviolently prevented a rebellion in Algeria for much of the century. During his career, he all but created much of what we see in modern magic, including the traditional magician suit template (which was nice, but probably didn’t prevent too much bloodshed.)
7. Count of St. Germain
![Count-of-St-Germain](http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Count-of-St-Germain.jpg)
He was an 18th-century court regular of Louis XV, serving as a diplomat, a secret agent, a composer, and author. He also claimed to be a magician capable of various elaborate forms of alchemy. Most importantly, he first won court favor by claiming to remove flaws from gems, and managed it by taking a low value gem, and switching it out with a flawless one he found elsewhere in France. He claimed to be in with many secret societies, and that he was four thousand years old. Amazingly, some devout followers believe he is still alive today.
6. Jasper Maskelyne
![jasper-maskelyne](http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/jasper-maskelyne.jpeg)
5. Aleister Crowley
![Aleister-Crowley](http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Aleister-Crowley.jpg)
These days, Crowley is mostly famous for being a supposed member of magical societies in Great Britain in the early-20th Century, and for seeming like he was just messing about, because there was a period of religious revivalism in the late-19th century that he was needling. He also claimed to possess the power to make himself invisible, among other things. Then he lampooned his own claims with “The Book of Lies,” which was a ninety-three page book, with ninety-three chapters, where he made even more obviously untrue claims. But then (and this really is too good to be true,) he claimed to have actually been offered induction into the Freemason Society, on the basis of his knowing “the secret.” He turned the group down however, because he’d made up the secret.
4. Raoul Wallenberg
![raoul-wallenberg](http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/raoul-wallenberg.jpg)
Returning to the subject of lying to the Nazis, Raoul Wallenberg’s magnificent lies saved thousands of lives in Hungary in 1944. In history’s greatest act of forgery, this Swedish representative distributed thousands of illegal phony passport visas, that would allow Jews who had been previously seeking relative asylum in Hungary passage to Sweden. He went so far in his pursuit to save people, that he was known to physically stand on top of moving trains, in order to continue handing them out to passengers.
3. Harry Gerguson
![harry-gerguson](http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/harry-gerguson.jpg)
After the Romanoffs were killed in 1917, many people came forth to claim to be lost royal stock. No one was more successful than Harry Gerguson, who was actually just a New York City orphan. Most of his success stemmed from the fact that he kept claiming, up until his death in 1962, he was actually Michael Romanoff. He would keep up this lie even after he’d been arrested, sued, and deported from America ten times. In fact, he used his invented royal credentials (which almost all royal credentials are, to be honest) to found a high-profile Hollywood restaurant, make the usual celebrity friends, and enroll in Harvard. It just goes to show: stick to the lie, and eventually people might find the whole thing charming.
2. Alan Abel
![1-AA-photo-gallery](http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/1-AA-photo-gallery.jpg)
1. Wilhelm Voigt
![wilhelm-voigt-soldier-and-not](http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/wilhelm-voigt-soldier-and-not.jpg)
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