What phrase does Gregory House repeatedly use to express skepticism in House, M.D.?

Gregory House repeatedly says “Everybody lies” in House, M.D.

The phrase summarizes House’s central belief that patients, relatives, and sometimes colleagues conceal information. He treats symptoms and statements as evidence that must be tested rather than accepted at face value. This attitude drives many storylines: a diagnosis can fail because a patient omits drug use, sexual history, an exposure, or another embarrassing detail.

“Everybody lies” is not a medical rule, and the show does not present it as a reliable scientific principle. It is House’s cynical working philosophy and one of his most recognizable lines. He uses it to justify intrusive questions, unconventional investigations, and distrust of reassuring explanations.

The quotation is also the title of the first episode of the show’s second season. It is sometimes confused with the broader theme that people are unreliable narrators, but the canonical wording associated with House is the short phrase “Everybody lies.”