Pretension Quotes

• Let's not be naive, we're not talking about a simple political battle; it is a destructive pretension against the plan of God. We are not talking about a mere bill, but rather a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.

  Pope Francis

  Children, Father, Lying

  "Is There Hope for Francis on Gay Rights?" by Richard Socarides, www.newyorker.com. March 13, 2013.

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• It is no disgrace not to be able to do everything; but to undertake, or pretend to do, what you are not made for, is not only shameful, but extremely troublesome and vexatious.

  Plutarch

  Able, Made, Disgrace

  Plutarch (1871). “Plutarch's Morals”, p.72

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• As a general rule, people who flagrantly pretend to anything are the reverse of that which they pretend to. A man who sets up for a saint is sure to be a sinner; and a man who boasts that he is a sinner is sure to have some feeble, maudlin, snivelling bit of saintship about him which is enough to make him a humbug.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Men, People, Saint

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• The only good in pretending is the fun we get out of fooling ourselves that we fool somebody.

  Booth Tarkington

  Fun, Fool, Pretending

  Newton Booth Tarkington (2015). “Alice Adams”, p.247, Booklassic

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• Pretension almost always overdoes the original, and hence exposes itself.

  Hosea Ballou

  Being Original, Originals

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• The world is his who can see through its pretension. What deafness, what stone-blind custom, what overgrown error you behold, is there only by sufferance,--by your sufferance. See it to be a lie, and you have already dealt it its mortal blow.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Lying, Blow, Errors

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.71, Penguin

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• The world is a collective madhouse, its inhabitants are merely faking sanity. It is critical to becoming aware of these aberrations, for pretensions can be the enemy of love.

  John Astin

  Enemy, Becoming, Aberration

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• Pretensions to moral superiority are devastatingly destructive.

  Mary Douglas

  Moral, Destructive, Superiority

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• Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Life, Dance, Being Yourself

  "Margot Fonteyn : Autobiography‎" by Margot Fonteyn, (p. 81), 1975.

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• The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Business, Men, Hug

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2000). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.812, Modern Library

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• I forgive all personal weaknesses except egomania and pretension.

  Herb Kelleher

  Forgiving, Weakness, Egomania

  "The 'I Am' Q&A". CNBC interview, www.cnbc.com.

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• Who makes the fairest show means most deceit.

  Pericles

  Mean, Deceit, Show Me

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• The world is his who can see through its pretension.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  World, Deafness, American Scholar

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.71, Penguin

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• The crafty person is always in danger; and when they think they walk in the dark, all their pretenses are transparent.

  John Tillotson

  Dark, Thinking, Danger

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• THE COMPUTER IS JUST AN INSTRUMENT for doing faster what we already know how to do slower. All pretensions to computer intelligence and paradise-tomorrow promises should be toned down before the public turns away in disgust. And if that should happen, our civilization might not survive.

  Gian-Carlo Rota

  Science, Civilization, Promise

  Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz (2009). “Discrete Thoughts: Essays on Mathematics, Science and Philosophy”, p.263, Springer Science & Business Media

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• The mark of a man of the world is absence of pretension.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Experience, World

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• The middle class is so funny, it's the class I know best, and it's the class where you find the most pretension, so that's what makes the middle classes so funny.

  J. K. Rowling

  Funny, Class, Middle

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• He flattered himself on being a man without any prejudices; and this pretension itself is a very great prejudice.

  Anatole France

  Men, Justice, Diversity

  Anatole France (2016). “The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard”, p.89, Anatole France

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• True glory strikes root, and even extends itself; all false pretensions fall as do flowers, nor can any feigned thing be lasting.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Flower, Fall, Roots

  "De Officiis". Treatise by Marcus Tullius Cicero, Book II, section 43, 44 B.C..

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• Marriage is not a natural phenomenon. It is artificial, arbitrary. And when it disappears you cannot do anything to bring it back. You can pretend, but that pretension makes you a hypocrite. And your pretension cannot deceive the woman, because she has known your love and the pretension cannot become the substitute. The only way is to separate - in friendship, because you have given each other so much.

  Rajneesh

  Marriage, Hypocrite, Arbitrary

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• If you try to go beyond your interests just for the sake of pretensions or wealth, your art becomes less legitimate.

  Vincent D'Onofrio

  Art, Trying, Sake

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• Pretension may sit still, but cannot act. Pretension never feigned an act of real greatness. Pretension never wrote an Iliad, nordrove back Xerxes, nor christianized the world, nor abolished slavery.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Real, Greatness, World

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.73

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• Oh, for a pin that would puncture pretension!

  Isaac Asimov

  Humble, Pins, Puncture

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• The desire of appearing clever often prevents our becoming so.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Clever, Desire, Becoming

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• A snob is that man or woman who is always pretending to be something better--especially richer or more fashionable--than he is.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Men, Pretending, Snob

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