Trickery Quotes

The craftiest trickery are too short and ragged a cloak to cover a bad heart.

Johann Kaspar Lavater

Heart, Deception, Too Short

66 Copy quote
It seems to me that there are two kinds of trickery: the "fronts" people assume before one another's eyes, and the "front" a writer puts on the face of reality.

Francoise Sagan

Eye, Reality, Two

"Françoise Sagan, The Art of Fiction No. 15". Interview with Blair Fuller and Robert B. Silvers, www.theparisreview.org. Autumn 1956.

63 Copy quote

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The generous abundance of her passion, without guile or trickery, was like a white flame which penetrated and found response in depths of his own sensuous nature that had never yet been reached.

Kate Chopin

Passion, Flames, White

Kate Chopin (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Kate Chopin (Illustrated)”, p.845, Delphi Classics

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Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Max Ehrmann

Being Yourself, Exercise, Cynical

Max Ehrmann (2003). “Desiderata: A Survival Guide for Life”, p.9, Andrews McMeel Publishing

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No, life has not disappointed me. On the contrary, I find it truer, more desirable and mysterious every year -- ever since the day when the great liberator came to me: the idea that life could be an experiment of the seeker for knowledge -- and not a duty, not a calamity, not trickery.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Years, Ideas, Mysterious

Friedrich Nietzsche (2010). “The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs”, p.255, Vintage

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There is as much trickery required to grow rich by a stupid book as there is folly in buying it.

Jean de la Bruyere

Stupid, Book, Reading

"The "Characters" of Jean de la Bruyère". Book by Jean de La Bruyère. Translated by Henri Van Laun, 1885.

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We heard stories about fakery and decoys at revivals. I never personally saw any trickery.

Kathie Lee Gifford

Stories, Saws, Revival

Kathie Lee Gifford, Jim Jerome (1993). “I Can't Believe I Said That!”, Pocket

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It's a sad day when the leaders of the free world engage in such deception and trickery. I voted against this unnecessary war and will continue to argue that the best way to support our troops is to bring them home.

Major Owens

War, Home, Hype

53 Copy quote
Credulity forges more miracles than trickery could invent.

Joseph Joubert

Miracle, Credulity

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Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.

Sun Tzu

Life, Strength, Wisdom

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There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.

Charles Caleb Colton

Stupid, Would Be, Fraud

Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.60

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He who uses trickery should at least make use of his judgment to learn that he can scarcely hide treacherous conduct for very long among clever men who are determined to find him out, although they may pretend to be deceived in order to disguise their knowledge of his deceitfulness.

Madeleine de Souvre, marquise de Sable

Clever, Learning, Men

4 Copy quote
All violence is the result of people tricking themselves into believing that their pain derives from other people and that consequently those people deserve to be punished.

Marshall B. Rosenberg

Encouragement, Pain, Believe

91 Copy quote
Of course I'm trying to trick you! That's the way of the world, Baudelaires. Everyone runs around with their secrets and their schemes, trying to outwit everyone else.

Daniel Handler

Running, Secret, Trying

"The End". Book by Daniel Handler, 2006.

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...History shows that ... (people) can be deflected from their natural tendencies by artful propaganda, bogus crises, or other political trickery.

Robert Higgs

Peace, War, People

18 Copy quote
The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

Leonardo da Vinci

Inspirational, Spiritual, Art

Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.444, GENERAL PRESS

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There are not anywhere else so many ways of trickery, so many false lights, so many veils, so many guises, so many illusive deceits, as are practiced in every man's conscience in respect to his motives, thoughts, feelings, conduct, and character.

Henry Ward Beecher

Character, Men, Light

Henry Ward Beecher (1873). “The Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn”, p.35

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Storytelling: the world's second oldest profession.

Danny Harris

World, Superstitions, Storytelling

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... the whole sickening trickery in life -- the idea that one cannot fight for one's humanity without, ironically, losing it ... that trickery is the real enemy and the very essence of the thing we must continually be on our guard against.

Vivian Gornick

Real, Fighting, Essence

Vivian Gornick (1978). “Essays in feminism”, HarperCollins Publishers

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Exploitation and manipulation produce boredom and triviality; they cripple man, and all factors that make man into a psychic cripple turn him also into a sadist or a destroyer.

Erich Fromm

Mean, Men, Psychics

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And not only the pride of intellect, but the stupidity of intellect. And, above all, the dishonesty, yes, the dishonesty of intellect. Yes, indeed, the dishonesty and trickery of intellect.

Leo Tolstoy

Pride, Stupidity, Dishonesty

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A Warrior of Light never resorts to trickery, but he knows how to distract his opponent.

Paulo Coelho

Warrior, Light, Opponents

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It’s in the very trickery that it pleases me. But show me how the trick is done, and I have lost my interest therein.

Seneca the Younger

Please Me, Done, Lost

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I certainly never believed, more or less, in the "essential doctrines" of Christianity, which represent God as the predestinator of men to sin and perdition, and Christ as their rescuer from that doom. I never was more or less behuiled by the trickery of language by which the perdition of man is made out to be justice, and his redemption to be mercy.

Harriet Martineau

Men, Justice, Atheism

Harriet Martineau (2006). “Autobiography”, p.60, Broadview Press

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A business model that relies on trickery is doomed to fail.

Charlie Munger

Failing, Rely, Models

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