Deception Quotes - Page 10

• "Why, I don't exactly know about perjury, my dear sir," replied the little gentleman. "Harsh word, my dear sir, very harsh word indeed. It's a legal fiction, my dear sir, nothing more."

  Charles Dickens

  Funny, Humorous, Gentleman

  Charles Dickens (1905). “The Pickwick Papers”, p.541

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• Not to be, but to seem, virtuous - it is a formula whose utility we all discovered in the nursery.

  C. S. Lewis

  Nursery, Virtuous, Formulas

  C. S. Lewis (1990). “Poetry and prose in the sixteenth century”, Oxford Univ Pr on Demand

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• An election is nothing more than the advanced auction of stolen goods.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Auctions, Election, Stolen

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• If the whole church goes off into deception, that will in no way excuse us for not following Christ.

  Leonard Ravenhill

  Following Christ, Church, Way

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• Mankind's greatest error, the biggest deception of the past thousand years is this: to confuse poverty with stupidity.

  Orhan Pamuk

  Past, Errors, Years

  Orhan Pamuk (2011). “Snow”, p.282, Faber & Faber

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• It is a fair adornment of a man and a great convenience both to himself and to all those with whom he converses and deals, to act uprightly, uniformly, and consistently. The practice of piety frees a man from interior distraction and from irresolution in his mind, from duplicity or inconstancy in his character, and from confusion in his proceedings, and consequently securing for others freedom from deception and disappointment in their transactions with him.

  Isaac Barrow

  Disappointment, Character, Duplicity

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• The demagogue is usually sly, a detractor of others, a professor of humility and disinterestedness, a great stickler for equality as respects all above him, a man who acts in corners, and avoids open and manly expositions of his course, calls blackguards gentlemen, and gentlemen folks, appeals to passions and prejudices rather than to reason, and is in all respects, a man of intrigue and deception, of sly cunning and management.

  James F. Cooper

  Passion, Humility, Men

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.

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• Conversation! Supple sentences, with first and second meanings and overtones beyond, outrageous challenges with cleverly planned slip-points, rebuttals of elegant brevity; deceptions and guiles, patient explanations of the obvious, fleeting allusions to the unthinkable. As a preliminary, the conversationalist must gauge the mood, the intelligence and the verbal facility of the company. To this end, a few words of pedantic exposition often prove invaluable.

  Jack Vance

  Challenges, Fleeting, Firsts

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• Sometimes terror and pain are not the best levers; deception, when it works, is the most elegant and the least expensive manipulation of all.

  Vernor Vinge

  Pain, Levers, Manipulation

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.145, Macmillan

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• Of all forms of deception self-deception is the most deadly, and of all deceived persons the self-deceived are the least likely to discover the fraud.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Self, Form, Fraud

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• I have often heard, "I love God but just don't like His people." This may sound glib, but as John explained, this is a basic deception as we do not really love God unless we also love His people. The Scriptures also go to great lengths to explain that love is not to be based on whether people are lovable or not.

  Rick Joyner

  Love, People, Sound

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• Whatsoever accidents or qualities our senses make us think there be in the world, they are not there, but are seemings and apparitions only. The things that really are in the world without us, are those motions by which these seemings are caused. And this is the great deception of sense, which also is by sense to be corrected. For as sense telleth me, when I see directly, that the colour seemeth to be in the object; so also sense telleth me, when I see by reflection, that colour is not in the object.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Science, Thinking, Reflection

  "Elements of Law, Natural and Political".

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• If I had had to write only about imaginary people, I would have had to close up my typewriter. I wrote about my life in less and less disguise as I grew older, and finally with no disguise - except the disguise we create for ourselves, which is self-deception.

  William Maxwell

  Writing, Typewriters, Self

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• All warfare is based on deception. If your enemy is superior, evade him. If angry, irritate him. If equally matched, fight and if not: split and re-evaluate.

  Sun Tzu

  Fighting, Enemy, Warfare

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• The art of a magician is not found in the simple deception, but in what surrounds it, the construction of a reality which supports the illusion.

  Jim Steinmeyer

  Art, Simple, Reality

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• Self-deception helps us deceive.

  David Livingstone

  Self, Helping, Deceiving

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• Why do most great pictures look uncontrived? Why do photographers bother with the deception, especially since it so often requires the hardest work of all? The answer is, I think, that the deception is necessary if the goal of art is to be reached: only pictures that look as if they had been easily made can convincingly suggest that beauty is commonplace.

  Robert Adams

  Art, Thinking, Goal

  Robert Adams (1989). “Beauty in photography: essays in defense of traditional values”

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• I used to think most Democrats in Congress who voted for [ObamaCare] really believed they were doing something good for the poor and the middle class. Now I wonder. It's crystal clear that just about everything President Barack Obama promised about his health plan was false, his deception deliberate. If Democrats really cared for the people harmed by the law, you'd think they'd admit their mistake, try to fix it. They haven't.

  Jack Kelly

  Mistake, Thinking, Law

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• They have no power over you. It's all a show, a deception. Your urges scream and bluster at you; they cajole; they coax; they threaten; but they really carry no stick at all. You give in out of habit. You give in because you never really bother to look beyond the threat. It is all empty back there. There is only one way to learn this lesson, though. The words on this page won't do it.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Discipline, Giving, Over You

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.80, Simon and Schuster

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• The universe is an emanation of mind. As human consciousness evolves in an accelerated spiral, we are being compelled to realize that our minds are manifesting reality to an ever-increasing extent- our collective shadow-projections of wasteful technologies, wars, and weaponry reflect subtler interior regions of our psyche and the discordant deceptions in our intimate relationships. If this interpretation is valid, it forces upon us a concomitant responsibility, a grave burden.

  Daniel Pinchbeck

  War, Responsibility, Technology

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• The fundamental factor of self-deception is this constant desire to be something in this world and in the world hereafter.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Self, Desire, Fundamentals

  Jiddu Krishnamurti (2013). “The first and last freedom”, p.234, Rajpal & Sons

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• Our capacity for self-deception has no known limits

  Michael Novak

  Self, Limits, Capacity

  Michael Novak (2011). “Ascent of the Mountain, Flight of the Dove: An Invitation to Religious Studies (Third Revised Edition)”, p.50, Transaction Publishers

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• Each time the losses and deceptions of life teach us about impermanence, they bring us closer to the truth. When you fall from a great height, there is only one possible place to land: on the ground-the ground of truth. And if you have the understanding that comes from spiritual practice, then falling is in no way a disaster, but the discovery of an inner refuge.

  Sogyal Rinpoche

  Spiritual, Fall, Loss

  FaceBook post by Sogyal Rinpoche from Jul 24, 2015

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• I think there is a good reason why the propaganda system works that way. It recognizes that the public will not support the actual policies. Therefore it is important to prevent any knowledge or understanding of them.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Support, Understanding

  Noam Chomsky (2010). “The Chomsky Reader”, p.48, Pantheon

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• How much rationality and higher protection there is in such self-deception, and how much falseness I still require in order to allow myself again and again the luxury of my sincerity.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Self, Order, Luxury

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2012). “Human, All-Too-Human: Parts One and Two”, p.8, Courier Corporation

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