Deceit Quotes - Page 24

• I was now prepared to accept any faith so long as it did not demand a direct denial of reason, which would have been a deceit.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Long, Denial, Demand

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• Before I came along, my field was dominated by myth, superstition, deceit, and outright fraud. I overcame it by the simple application of logical thinking.

  Arthur Jones

  Simple, Thinking, Investing

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• Some disguised deceits counterfeit truth so perfectly that not to be taken in by them would be an error of judgment.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Taken, Errors, Would Be

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• In love deceit almost always outstrips distrust.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Love, Deception, Distrust

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• Many men provoke others to overreach them by excessive suspicion; their extraordinary distrust in some sort justifies the deceit.

  Seneca the Younger

  Men, Distrust, Suspicion

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• I am an advocate of honesty and openness, and I think deceit is a dangerous seed to plant and let grow in relationships.

  Cheryl Strayed

  Honesty, Thinking, Plant

  Source: wbur.org

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• Deceit and violence - these are the two forms of deliberate assault on human beings.

  Sissela Bok

  Two, Deception, Violence

  Sissela Bok (2011). “Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life”, p.54, Vintage

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• the old fellow seemed to spot deceit as if it reeked like a goat.

  Margery Allingham

  Deception, Goats, Spots

  Margery Allingham (2015). “The Tiger in the Smoke”, p.85, Ipso Books

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• [Hawthorne''s] pious blame is a chuckle of praise all the while.

  D. H. Lawrence

  America, Literature, Hawthorne

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• I will wait and watch till the day of David at last shall be finished, and wisdom no more fox-faced, and the blood gets back its flame.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Bible, Wisdom, Flames

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• The very essence of gravity was design, and, consequently, deceit; it was a taught trick to gain credit of the world for more sense end knowledge than a man was worth; and that with all its pretensions it was no better, but often worse, than what a French wit had long ago defined it--a mysterious carriage of the body to cover the defects of the mind.

  Laurence Sterne

  Men, Essence, Long Ago

  Laurence Sterne (1834). “The Works of Laurence Sterne, in One Volume”, p.17

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• There is no word or action but may be taken with two hands,--either with the right hand of charitable construction, or the sinister interpretation of malice and suspicion; and all things do succeed as they are taken. To construe an evil, action well is but a pleasing and profitable deceit to myself; but to misconstrue a good thing is a treble wrong,--to myself, the action, and the author.

  Joseph Hall

  Taken, Hands, Two

  Joseph Hall (1837). “The Works of Joseph Hall: Devotional works; Miscellaneous theology”, p.89

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• Some authorities hold that the young ought not to lie at all. That, of course, is putting it rather stronger than necessary; still, while I cannot go quite so far as that, I do maintain, and I believe I am right, that the young ought to be temperate in the use of this great art until practice and experience shall give them that confidence, elegance and precision which alone can make the accomplishment graceful and profitable.

  Mark Twain

  Education, Art, Lying

  Mark Twain (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated)”, p.4158, Delphi Classics

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• It recognizes no morality but a sham morality meant for deceit, no honor even among thieves and of a thievish sort, no force but physical force, no intellectual power but cunning, no disgrace but failure, no crime but stupidity.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Stupidity, Intellectual, Honor

  Woodrow Wilson, Arthur Stanley Link, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Princeton University (1968). “The papers of Woodrow Wilson”

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• Let it stand, therefore, as an indubitable truth, which no engines can shake, that the mind of man is so entirely alienated from the righteousness of God that he cannot conceive, desire, or design any thing but what is wicked, distorted, foul, impure, and iniquitous; that his heart is so thoroughly envenomed by sin that it can breathe out nothing but corruption and rottenness; that if some men occasionally make a show of goodness, their mind is ever interwoven with hypocrisy and deceit, their soul inwardly bound with the fetters of wickedness.

  John Calvin

  Heart, Men, Hypocrisy

  John Calvin (2012). “The Institutes Of The Christian Religion (Annotated Edition)”, p.299, Jazzybee Verlag

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• There will be as much deceit and criminality in the world as there is lack of art.

  Rudolf Steiner

  Art, World, Criminality

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• If I am to serve as an instrument of deceit, at least let it be with a clear conscience. I do not want to be considered either so affectionate or so loyal a servant as to be found fit to betray anyone.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Loyal, Want, Fit

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.603, Stanford University Press

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• The institutions of college athletics exist primarily as unreality fueled by deceit. The unreality is that universities should be in the business of providing large spectacles of mass entertainment. The fundamental absurdity of that notion requires the promulgation of the various deceits necessary to carry it out.

  Charlie Pierce

  College, Fundamentals, Entertainment

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• Khadi has been conceived as the foundation and the image of ahimsa. A real khadi-wearer will not utter an untruth. A real khadi-wearer will harbour no violence, no deceit, no impurity.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Real, Foundation, Violence

  Gandhi (Mahatma) (1938). “Cent per cent Swadeshi: or, The economics of village industries”

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• Beauty! thou pretty plaything! dear deceit, That steals so softly o'er the stripling's heart, And gives it a new pulse unknown before!

  Robert Blair

  Beauty, Heart, Giving

  Robert Blair (1851). “The Grave: A Poem”, p.37

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• Men of noble birth are noted to be envious towards new men when they rise. For the distance is altered, and it is like a deceit of the eye, that when others come on they think themselves go back.

  Francis Bacon

  Distance, Eye, Men

  Francis Bacon (1778). “The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and Lord High Chancellor of England: In Five Volumes”, p.456

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• There is a cunning which we in England call the rning of the cat in the pan.

  Francis Bacon

  Cat, England, Cunning Man

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• You are the only woman who has a sense of gaiety, a wise tolerance - no more, you seem to urge me to betray you. I love you for that. [...] I don't know what to expect of you, but it is something in the way of a miracle. I am going to demand everything of you - even the impossible, because you encourage it. You are really strong. I even like your deceit, your treachery. It seems aristocratic to me.

  Henry Miller

  Wise, Strong, Love You

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• Then, fare thee well, deceitful Maid!

  Lord Byron

  Lying, Maids, Thee

  Lord Byron (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)”, p.153, Delphi Classics

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• The zeal which begins with hypocrisy must conclude in treachery at first it deceives, at last it betrays

  Francis Bacon

  Lying, Hypocrisy, Lasts

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