Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Deception

It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown.
Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist

It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State

The certain way to be cheated is to fancy one’s self more cunning than others.
Pierre Charron (1541–1603) French Preacher, Philosopher

Cheat me in the price, but not in the goods.
Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian

No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.
Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist

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

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

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

All deception in the course of life is indeed nothing else but a lie reduced to practice, and falsehood passing from words into things.
Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher

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

Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet

Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.
Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) British Head of State, Military Leader

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man’s virtues the means of deceiving him.
Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist

The easiest person to deceive is one’s own self.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician

All war is based on deception.
Sun Tzu (fl. c.544–496 BCE) Chinese General, Military Theorist

Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher

Life is the art of being well deceived.
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist

Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.
Homer (751–651 BCE) Ancient Greek Poet

Deceive not thy physician, confessor, nor lawyer.
George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman

To know how to disguise is the knowledge of kings.
Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642) French Cardinal, Statemesan

It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer

It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer

The people of the world having once been deceived, suspect deceit in truth itself.
The Hitopadesha Indian Collection of Fables

We often shed tears that deceive ourselves after deceiving others.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer

Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers.
Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer

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

To give up pretensions is as blessed a relief as to get them ratified.
William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician

Whatever deceives men seems to produce a magical enchantment.
Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator

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