Cunning Quotes - Page 12

I can again thy former light restore, Should I repent me: but once put out thy light, Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature, I know not where is that Promethean heat That can thy light relume.

William Shakespeare

Light, Patterns, Heat

'Othello' (1602-4) act 5, sc. 2, l. 1

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Cheating is a sin, but honest cunning is simply prudence. It is a virtue. To be sure, it has a likeness to roguery, but that cannot be helped. He who has not learned to practice it is a fool.

Giacomo Casanova

Cheating, Practice, Fool

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Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.

Ambrose Bierce

Coward, Human Nature, Virtue

Ambrose Bierce, S. T. Joshi, David E. Schultz (1998). “A Sole Survivor: Bits of Autobiography”, p.238, Univ. of Tennessee Press

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But Death was cunning.

J. K. Rowling

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It was his cunning, this confidence and farsightedness in dealing with his own Clan, that made Crookedstar one of the strongest leaders the Clans have ever seen.

Erin Hunter

Leader, Clans, Made

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Life, faculties, production-in other words, individuality, liberty, property-this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it.

Frederic Bastiat

Men, Leader, Political

Frederic Bastiat (2006). “The Law”, p.3, Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.

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To avoid each other, their eyes had developed an amazing mobility with all the cunning of enemies fearful of meeting each other head on.

Guy de Maupassant

Eye, Enemy, Mobility

Guy de Maupassant, Robert Lethbridge (2001). “Pierre Et Jean”, p.118, Oxford University Press

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When you break the heart of the philosopher, you must apply great force and cunning strategy, but when the deed is completed, the heart lies in great stony ruin at your feet. If you succeed in breaking it, the job is done once and for all. It will not be repaired.

Charles Baxter

Broken Heart, Jobs, Lying

Charles Baxter (2001). “The feast of love”, Vintage

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What I could really use is an older man. A mentor. One who could tell me how things fit together. He would have asked me to do chores that I felt were meaningless. I would have been impatient and protested, but done them nonetheless. And eventually, after several months of hard labour, I would have realised that there was a deeper meaning behind it all, and that the master had a cunning plan all the time.

Erlend Loe

Men, Together, Months

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Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides: Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.

William Shakespeare

Time, Lasts, Faults

William Shakespeare (1820). “Select Plays of William Shakespeare: With the Corrections & Illustrations of Various Commentators”, p.151

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But evil is a cunning force. It can find the weakness in any man, even the bravest. [...] It only takes a single weak moment to let evil in.

William Joyce

Men, Evil, Weakness

William Joyce (2012). “The Guardians: Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King; E. Aster Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth's Core!; Toothiana, Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies”, p.36, Simon and Schuster

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It is not true that fate slips silently into our lives. It steps in through the door that we have opened, and we invite it to enter. No one is strong enough or cunning enough to avert by word or deed the misfortune that is rooted in the iron laws of his character and his life.

Sándor Márai

Strong, Character, Fate

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Picture this," said Magnus. "Me with a little monkey friend. I could teach him tricks. I could dress him in a cunning jacket. He could look just like me! But more monkey-shaped.

Cassandra Clare

Dresses, Looks, Littles

Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan (2013). “What Really Happened in Peru”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

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I love enemies, though not in the Christian way. They amuse me, excite my blood. Being always on one’s guard, catching every glance, the significance of every word, guessing at intentions, frustrating their plots, pretending to be tricked, and suddenly, with a shove, upturning the whole enormous and arduously built edifice of their cunning and schemes—that’s what I call life.

Mikhail Lermontov

Christian, Blood, Enemy

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It is a pity that, commonly, more care is had--yea, and that among very wise men--to find out rather a cunning man for their horse than a cunning man for their children.

Roger Ascham

Wise, Horse, Children

Roger Ascham (1815). “The English Works of Roger Ascham: Preceptor to Queen Elizabeth”, p.206

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To make the cunning artless, tame the rude, subdue the haughty, shake the undaunted soul; yea, put a bridle in the lion's mouth, and lead him forth as a domestic cur,--these are the triumphs of all-powerful beauty.

Joanna Baillie

Beauty, Powerful, Rude

Joanna Baillie (1832). “The Complete Poetical Works of Joanna Baillie”, p.36

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You say I have the most wicked face of any woman. You say my hair is like the serpent locks of Medusa, that my eyes have the cruel cunning of Borgia, that my mouth is the mouth of the sinister scheming Delilah, that my hands are like the talons of a Circe or the blood-bathing Elizabeth Bathory. And then you ask me of my soul—you wish to know if it is reflected in my face.

Theda Bara

Eye, Hair, Blood

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If I want to act relaxed, it's going to take all my cunning, skill, and concentration.

David Mitchell

Funny, Skills, Want

"Fictional character: Mark Corrigan". TV Series "Peep Show" ("Dance Class", 2004), 2003-2015.

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The media are very smart, they're very cunning, and they're very dishonest.

Donald Trump

Smart, Media, Very Smart

Source: www.businessinsider.com

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This is the great evil in wine, it first seizes the feet; it is a cunning wrestler.
[Lat., Magnum hoc vitium vino est,
Pedes captat primum; luctator dolosu est.]

Plautus

Wine, Feet, Evil

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Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life; cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interests and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understanding; cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them.

Jean de la Bruyere

Strong, Men, Perfection

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Behavior of such cunning cruelty that only a human being could have thought of or contrived it we call 'inhuman,' revealing thus some pathetic ideal standard for our species that survives all betrayals.

Rose Macaulay

Betrayal, Behavior, Standards

Rose Macaulay (1926). “A Casual Commentary”

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For the multitude of worldly friends profiteth not, nor may strong helpers anything avail, nor wise counselors give profitable counsel, nor the cunning of doctors give consolation, nor riches deliver in time of need, nor a secret place to defend, if Thou, Lord, do not assist, help, comfort, counsel, inform, and defend.

Thomas a Kempis

God, Wise, Strong

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What is denominated discretion in man we call cunning in brutes.

Jean de La Fontaine

Men, Brutes, Discretion

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What man so wise, what earthly wit so ware,
As to descry the crafty cunning train,
By which deceit doth mask in visor fair,
And cast her colours dyed deep in grain,
To seem like truth, whose shape she well can feign,
And fitting gestures to her purpose frame,
The guiltless man with guile to entertain?

Edmund Spenser

Wise, Men, Deceit

Edmund Spenser, Roy Maynard (1999). “Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves: Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene”, p.125, Canon Press & Book Service

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