Masquerade Quotes

• During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.

  Howard Thurman

  Peace, War, Hatred

  Howard Thurman (2012). “Jesus and the Disinherited”, p.74, Beacon Press

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• And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but the truth in masquerade.

  Jodi Picoult

  Truth, Lying, Dishonesty

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• The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.

  Cesare Pavese

  Life, Time, Party

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• Here too it’s masquerade, I find: As everywhere, the dance of mind. I grasped a lovely masked procession, And caught things from a horror show… I’d gladly settle for a false impression, If it would last a little longer, though.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Mind, Lovely, Littles

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• Precise forecasts masquerade as accurate ones.

  Nate Silver

  Accurate, Forecasts, Precise

  Nate Silver (2012). “The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don't”, p.39, Penguin

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• Women over fifty already form one of the largest groups in the population structure of the western world. As long as they like themselves, they will not be an oppressed minority. In order to like themselves they must reject trivialization by others of who and what they are. A grown woman should not have to masquerade as a girl in order to remain in the land of the living.

  Germaine Greer

  Girl, Order, Land

  "The Change: Women, Aging and the Menopause". Book by Germaine Greer, 1991.

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• Stripped of all their masquerades, the fears of men are quite identical: the fear of loneliness, rejection, inferiority, unmanageable anger, illness and death.

  Joshua L. Liebman

  Loneliness, Men, Rejection

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• The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity, or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Christian, Light, Justice

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2011). “Letters Papers from Prison”, p.8, Simon and Schuster

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• Our civilized world is nothing but a great masquerade. You encounter knights, parsons, soldiers, doctors, lawyers, priests, philosophers and a thousand more: but they are not what they appear - they are merely masks... Usually, as I say, there is nothing but industrialists, businessmen and speculators concealed behind all these masks.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Knights, Doctors, Soldier

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• There is nothing so bad but it can masquerade as moral.

  Walter Lippmann

  Ethics, Morality, Moral

  Walter Lippmann (1914). “A Preface to Politics”

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• To the people that claim to hate Love: Remember that the thing that hurt you was a person, not love. If it had been love, they would not have hurt you. Beware that many things masquerade as love: obsession, jealousy, control, and loneliness are just a few. Love is the greatest thing on Earth, along with her sister, Hope.

  Carlos Salinas

  Love, Hurt, Hate

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• And many more Destructions played In this ghastly masquerade, All disguised, even to the eyes, Like Bishops, lawyers, peers, or spies.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Eye, Spy, Bishops

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (1840). “The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.231

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• Civilization is the lamb's skin in which barbarism masquerades.

  Thomas Bailey Aldrich

  Inspirational, Civilization, Skins

  Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1907). “The Writings of Thomas Bailey Aldrich”

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• A gypsy fire is on the hearth, Sign of the carnival of mirth; Through the dun fields and from the glade Flash merry folk in masquerade, For this is Hallowe'en!

  Jerry Smith

  Halloween, Heart, Fire

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• Do you think there's such a thing as a ghost who masquerades as a person? Do you believe that there are people whose bodies are still alive here on earth but whose souls are already in hell?

  Ann-Marie MacDonald

  Believe, Thinking, People

  Ann-Marie Macdonald (2010). “Fall on Your Knees”, p.518, Vintage Canada

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• Truth is for tailors and shoemakers. I, on the contrary, have always held that the Lord has a penchant for masquerades.

  Isak Dinesen

  Tailors, Truth Is, Lord

  "A brief survey of the short story: Isak Dinesen" by Chris Power, www.theguardian.com. May 20, 2014.

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• The near enemy of love is attachment. Attachment masquerades as love. It says, “I will love this person because I need them.” Or, “I’ll love you if you’ll love me back. I’ll love you, but only if you will be the way I want.” This isn’t love at all - it is attachment - and attachment is rigid, it is very different from love.

  Jack Kornfield

  Love You, Love Is, Attachment

  Jack Kornfield (2012). “Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are”, p.102, Shambhala Publications

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• History is the same thing over and over again.

  Woody Allen

  Fitness Motivational, Temporary Insanity, Bores You

  "Nothing Pleases Me More than Being Thought of as a European Filmmaker". Interview with Helene Zuber, www.spiegel.de. June 20, 2005.

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• The defenders of the status quo often masquerade as the preservers of harmony.

  Mark Sheppard

  Peace, Harmony, Status Quo

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• Freedom is no guarantee of anything. It is only defined today by what it is not. What it is takes forms strange and of infinite variety - bizarre as in a masquerade.

  Josephine Winslow Johnson

  Freedom, Guarantees, Today

  Josephine Winslow Johnson (1996). “The Inland Island”, Writer's Digest Books

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• A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Men, Self, Common Sense

  Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). “Freedom from fear: and other writings”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• Let's be honest. You let yourself be pulled in because it felt good to be wanted, needed. But then it went too far, as projected images always do. If it's not a real image, but one that has been projected on to you, then you can keep up the masquerade for only so long before the mask cracks and the paint on the mask peels away.

  Tori Amos

  Real, Long, Cracks

  Tori Amos, Ann Powers (2008). “Tori Amos: Piece by Piece”, p.299, Crown Archetype

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• A wedding is a funeral which masquerades as a feast. And the greater the pageantry, the deeper the savagery.

  Julie Burchill

  Funeral, Pageantry, Deeper

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• I suggest that US foreign policy can still be defined as "kiss my ass or I'll kick your head in." But of course it doesn't put it like that. It talks of "low intensity conflict..." What all this adds up to is a disease at the very centre of language, so that language becomes a permanent masquerade, a tapestry of lies.

  Harold Pinter

  Lying, Kissing, Add

  "Oh, Superman". Broadcast for "Opinion" on Channel 4 (May 31, 1990); later quoted in Harold Pinter "Various Voices: Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948-2005" (pp. 198-199), 2005.

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• The present always masquerades as a beginning; maybe we couldn't endure it if we realized at the time that it was a peak, or even an ending.

  Robin Morgan

  Endure, Ifs

  Robin Morgan (2014). “Saturday's Child: A Memoir”, p.76, Open Road Media

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