Pretence Quotes - Page 2

• When you find me attempting to break into your house to take your plate, under any pretence whatsoever, but most of all under pretence of purity of religion and Christian charity shoot me for a robber and a hypocrite, as in that case I shall certainly be.

  Edmund Burke

  Christian, Hypocrite, House

  Edmund Burke, Harvey C. Mansfield (1984). “Selected Letters of Edmund Burke”, p.277, University of Chicago Press

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• Never destroy without thought your enemy's pretences; they are usually your best weapon against him.

  Mary Renault

  Enemy, Weapons

  Mary Renault (1956). “The Last of the Wine”

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• If you are bent on assuming a pose and never reveal yourself to anyone frankly, in the fashion of many who live a false life that is all made up for show; for it is torturous to be constantly watching oneself and be fearful of being caught out of our usual role. And we are never free from concern if we think that every time anyone looks at us he is always taking-our measure; for many things happen that strip off our pretence against our will, and, though all this attention to self is successful, yet the life of those who live under a mask cannot be happy and without anxiety.

  Seneca the Younger

  Fashion, Integrity, Successful

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• All Pretences of foretelling by Astrology, are Deceits; for this manifest Reason, because the Wise and Learned, who can only judge whether there be any Truth in this Science, do all unanimously agree to laugh at and despise it; and none but the poor ignorant Vulgar give it any Credit.

  Jonathan Swift

  Wise, Science, Astrology

  Jonathan Swift, John Hawkesworth (1766). “The Works of Dr. Jonathan Swift: Accurately Revised in Twelve Volumes, Adorned with Copper-plates, with Some Account of the Author's Life, and Notes Historical and Explanatory”, p.194

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• If shaytan has entered into your heart - evil will look beautiful to you and good will seem tiring and exhausting.

  Nouman Ali Khan

  Beautiful, Heart, Evil

  Nouman Ali Khan “Tafsir Juz Amma: A collection of transcribed notes from the Tafsir lecture series by Sh. Nouman Ali Khan”, Rahil Tarique

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• we contrive to make revenge itself look like religion. We call down thunder on many a head under pretence, that those on whom we invoke it are God's enemies, when perhaps we invoke it because they are ours.

  Hannah More

  Revenge, Enemy, Looks

  Hannah More (1811). “Practical piety, or, The influence of religion of the heart on the conduct of the life”, p.199

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• How far does a pretence of feeling, maintained with absolute conviction, become authentic?

  Angela Carter

  Feelings, Doe, Conviction

  Angela Carter (1997). “Burning your boats: the collected short stories”, Penguin Group USA

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• Let no man turn aside, ever so slightly, from the broad path of honour, on the plausible pretence that he is justified by the goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means.

  Charles Dickens

  Courage, Integrity, Mean

  Charles Dickens (1868). “Barnaby Rudge: And Hard Times”, p.374

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• Simplicity is oftenest an adroit pretence.

  Anne-Therese de Marguenat de Courcelles

  Simplicity

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• Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe.

  Noah Webster

  Country, Army, Gun

  Noah Webster (1787). “An Examination Into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution Proposed by the Late Convention Held at Philadelphia: With Answers to the Principal Objections that Have Been Raised Against the System”, p.43

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• Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infinitely more advantage than any victory with all its expence.

  Thomas Paine

  Money, War, Victory

  Thomas Paine (1792). “Rights of Man, Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution... by T. Paine...”

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• Enlightenment is a destructive process. It
  has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the
  crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing
  through the facade of pretence. It's the
  complete eradication of everything we
  imagined to be true.

  Adyashanti

  Becoming Better, Enlightenment, Crumbling

  Adyashanti (2010). “The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment”, p.103, Sounds True

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• You see with your eyes. This means you can be misled by charm, by outward appearance. By webs of glamour, by surface pretences. I do not see with my eyes. I see good and I see evil. Nothing else.

  Neil Gaiman

  Mean, Eye, Evil

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• Of course, we need not be surprised if artistic excellence goes unrecognized on account of being unknown; but there should be the greatest indignation when, as often, good judges are flattered by the charm of social entertainments into an approbation which is a mere a pretence.

  Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

  Judging, Excellence, Needs

  "The Ten Books On Architecture". Book by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Book III, Preface, Sec. 1, c. 15 BC.

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• Men will look back in amusement at the pretence that once caused people to refer to General Dynamics and North American Aviation and AT&T as private business.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Men, People, Looks

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• He would be the finer gentleman that should leave the world without having tasted of lying or pretence of any sort, or of wantonness or conceit.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Lying, Gentleman, Would Be

  "Meditations". Book by Marcus Aurelius. Book IX, 2,

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• Nothing is more deceptive or more dangerous than the pretence of a desire to simplify government. The simplest governments are despotisms; the next simplest, limited monarchies; but all republics, all governments of law, must impose numerous limitations and qualifications of authority, and give many positive and many qualified rights.

  Daniel Webster

  Rights, Government, Law

  Daniel Webster, James Rees (1839). “The Beauties of the Hon. Daniel Webster: Selected and Arranged, with a Critical Essay on His Genius and Writings”, p.83

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• In all things, therefore, where we have clear evidence from our ideas, and those principles of knowledge I have above mentioned, reason is the proper judge; and revelation, though it may, in consenting with it, confirm its dictates, yet cannot in such cases invalidate its decrees: nor can we be obliged, where we have the clear and evident sentience of reason, to quit it for the contrary opinion, under a pretence that it is matter of faith: which can have no authority against the plain and clear dictates of reason.

  John Locke

  Faith, Ideas, Judging

  John Locke (1836). “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, p.530

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• Necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imaginary necessities, are the greatest cozenage men can put upon the Providence of God, and make pretences to break known rules by.

  Oliver Cromwell

  Men, Law, Break

  Speech to Parliament, 12 September 1654, in Thomas Carlyle 'Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches' (1845)

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• Vermonters are not only charmless of manner, on the whole; they are also, as far as I can judge, utterly without pretence, and give the salutary impression that they don't care ten cents whether you are amused, affronted, intrigued, or bored stiff by them. Hardly anybody asked me how I liked Vermont. Not a soul said 'Have a nice day!

  Jan Morris

  Nice, Giving, Judging

  Jan Morris (1993). “Locations”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• The job of an actor is disclosure, not pretence!

  Max Reinhardt

  Jobs, Actors, Disclosure

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• Aeroplanes are not designed by science, but by art in spite of some pretence and humbug to the contrary. I do not mean to suggest that engineering can do without science, on the contrary, it stands on scientific foundations, but there is a big gap between scientific research and the engineering product which has to be bridged by the art of the engineer.

  Walter Guido Vincenti

  Art, Mean, Engineering

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• All our Western thought is founded on this repulsive pretence that pain is the proper price of any good thing.

  Rebecca West

  Pain, Good Things, Western

  Rebecca West (2010). “Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia”, p.474, Open Road Media

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• And hast thou sworn on every slight pretence,
  Till perjuries are common as bad pence,
  While thousands, careless of the damning sin,
  Kiss the book's outside, who ne'er look'd within?

  William Cowper

  Book, Kissing, Looks

  William Cowper (1866). “Poetical works”, p.76

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• The mere leader of fashion has no genuine claim to supremacy; at least, no abiding assurance of it. He has embroidered his title upon his waistcoat, and carries his worth in his watch chain; and, if he is allowed any real precedence for this it is almost a moral swindle,--a way of obtaining goods under false pretences.

  Edwin Hubbel Chapin

  Fashion, Real, Leader

  "Humanity in the city". Book by Edwin Hubbell Chapin, 1854.

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