Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Better to be occasionally cheated than perpetually suspicious.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
It is very noble hypocrisy not to talk of one’s self.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked, and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Deceive not thy physician, confessor, nor lawyer.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
Man’s mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
I became a virtuoso of deceit. It wasn’t pleasure I was after, it was knowledge. I consulted the strictest moralists to learn how to appear, philosophers to find out what to think and novelists to see what I could get away with. And, in the end, I distilled everything down to one wonderfully simple principle: win or die.
—Christopher Hampton (b.1946) British Playwright, Screenwriter
He who has made it a practice to lie and deceive his father, will be the most daring in deceiving others.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
Life is the art of being well deceived.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Men still have to be governed by deception.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
The great advantages of simulation and dissimulation are three. First to lay asleep opposition and to surprise. For where a man’s intentions are published, it is an alarum to call up all that are against them. The second is to reserve a man’s self a fair retreat: for if a man engage himself, by a manifest declaration, he must go through, or take a fall. The third is, the better to discover the mind of another. For to him that opens himself, men will hardly show themselves adverse; but will fair let him go on, and turn their freedom of speech to freedom of thought.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Every cloud has a silver lining.
—Common Proverb
The craftiest trickery are too short and ragged a cloak to cover a bad heart.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
The natural man has a difficult time getting along in the world. Half the people think he is a scoundrel because he is not a hypocrite.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
No man was ever so much deceived by another as by himself.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick (1746–1816) British Nobleman, Politician
The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Architect
It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
The art of pleasing is the art of deception.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear what they are not.
—Elias Root Beadle (1812–65) American Clergyman
When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The crafty person is always in danger; and when they think they walk in the dark, all their pretenses are transparent.
—John Tillotson
The certain way to be cheated is to fancy one’s self more cunning than others.
—Pierre Charron (1541–1603) French Preacher, Philosopher
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 (1935–2004) French Novelist, Playwright, Short-Story Writer
To know how to disguise is the knowledge of kings.
—Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642) French Cardinal, Statemesan
Unlike grownups, children have little need to deceive themselves.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
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