Quotes about deception

"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."

Bacon, Francis on deception   

"No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities."

Bovee, Christian Nevell on deception
9 fans of this quote   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"The easiest way to be cheated is to believe yourself to be more cunning than others."

Charron, Pierre on deception
8 fans of this quote   

"Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will."

Cromwell, Oliver on deception
6 fans of this quote   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"Man's mind is so formed that it is far more susceptible to falsehood than to truth."

Erasmus, Desiderius on deception   

"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest."

Franklin, Benjamin on deception
23 fans of this quote   

"Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?"

Franklin, Benjamin on deception
13 fans of this quote   

"Unlike grown ups, children have little need to deceive themselves."

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von on deception
3 fans of this quote   

"We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves."

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von on deception
22 fans of this quote   

"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."

Hampton, Christopher on deception
3 fans of this quote   

"Life is the art of being well deceived."

Hazlitt, William on deception   

"Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering the weaknesses of others."

Hazlitt, William on deception   

"The people of the world having once been deceived, suspect deceit in truth itself."

Hitopadesa on deception   

"Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another."

Homer on deception
5 fans of this quote   

"He who has made it a practice to lie and deceive his father, will be the most daring in deceiving others."

Horace on deception
3 fans of this quote   

"To give up pretensions is as blessed a relief as to get them ratified."

James, William on deception   

"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."

Johnson, Samuel on deception   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"It is twice the pleasure to deceive the deceiver."

La Fontaine, Jean De on deception
5 fans of this quote   

"The sure way to be cheated is to think one's self more cunning than others."

La Rochefoucauld, Francois De on deception   

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

Lavater, Johann Kaspar on deception   

"You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time."

Lincoln, Abraham on deception
13 fans of this quote   

"We like to be deceived."

Pascal, Blaise on deception   

"Whatever deceives men seems to produce a magical enchantment."

Plato on deception
5 fans of this quote   

"Every cloud has a silver lining."

Proverb on deception
6 fans of this quote   

"To know how to disguise is the knowledge of kings."

Richelieu, Cardinal De on deception   

"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."

Sagan, Francoise on deception   

"Nothing is more common on earth than to deceive and be deceived."

Seume, Johann G. on deception   

"For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, who art as black as hell, as dark as night."

Shakespeare, William on deception
21 fans of this quote   

"Whenever, therefore, people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth, it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblances to that truth."

Socrates on deception   

"All deception in the course of life is indeed nothing else but a lie reduced to practice, and falsehood passing from words into things."

Southey, Robert on deception
6 fans of this quote   

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

Tillotson, John on deception
3 fans of this quote   

"The art of using deceit and cunning grow continually weaker and less effective to the user."

Tillotson, John on deception   

"A deception that elevates us is dearer than a host of low truths."

Tsvetaeva, Marina on deception   

"When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people."

Twain, Mark on deception
18 fans of this quote   

"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live."

Twain, Mark on deception
33 fans of this quote   

"Everyone is born sincere and die deceivers."

Vauvenargues, Marquis De on deception
4 fans of this quote   

"The art of pleasing is the art of deception."

Vauvenargues, Marquis De on deception   

"They deceive themself and thus us; merchants and tycoons of the world. Evil has gone from bad to worse for a worthless reward. "

Dye, James on deception