Deception Quotes - Page 12

• Sometimes terror and pain are not the best levers; deception, when it works, is the most elegant and the least expensive manipulation of all.

  Vernor Vinge

  Pain, Levers, Manipulation

  Vernor Vinge (2010). “A Fire Upon The Deep”, p.145, Macmillan

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• I think there is a good reason why the propaganda system works that way. It recognizes that the public will not support the actual policies. Therefore it is important to prevent any knowledge or understanding of them.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Support, Understanding

  Noam Chomsky (2010). “The Chomsky Reader”, p.48, Pantheon

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• It should be obvious that this pattern of systematic holes and gaps in Iraq's declaration is not the result of accidents, editing oversights or technical mistakes. These are material omissions that - in our view - constitute another material breach. It is up to Iraq to prove that there is some other explanation besides the obvious one, that this declaration is just one more act of deception in a history of lies from a defiant dictator.

  John Negroponte

  Mistake, Lying, Editing

  "U.N. officials react to Blix briefing". www.cnn.com. December 19, 2002.

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• Either the men of Galilee were men of superlative wisdom, and extensive knowledge and experience, and of deeper skill in the arts of deception than any and all others, before them or after them, or they have truly stated astonishing things which they saw and heard.

  Simon Greenleaf

  Art, Men, Skills

  Simon Greenleaf (1847). “An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice: With an Account of the Trial of Jesus”, p.47

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• To a large extent, the American church has become merged with the world. It has adopted so many of the world's ideals and standards that it has lost its ability to stem the tide of crime, deception and immorality that is sweeping the nation. For millions of church members there is no deep commitment to the cause of Christ, no regularity of attendance at public worship, no sacrificial giving, no personal religious discipline.

  Billy Graham

  Christian, Religious, Commitment

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• The fundamental deception of Satan is the lie that obedience can never bring happiness.

  R. C. Sproul

  Christian, Lying, Fundamentals

  R. C. Sproul (2009). “Knowing Scripture”, p.33, InterVarsity Press

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• Flirtation and coquetry are so nearly allied as to be identical; both are the art of successful and pleasing deception.

  Louise Colet

  Art, Successful, Flirting

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• Our life-style contains more Thanatos than Eros, for egotism, exploitation, deception, obsession and addiction have more place in us than eroticism, joy, generosity and spontaneity.

  Germaine Greer

  Women, Generosity, Addiction

  Germaine Greer (1972). “The female eunuch”

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• Belief is a deception you play upon yourself.

  Rajneesh

  Play, Belief, Belief In Self

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• All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If people speak or act with evil thoughts, pain follows them. If people speak or act with pure thoughts, happiness follows them, like a shadow that never leaves them.

  Gautama Buddha

  Change, Trust, Pain

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• When we consider reality itself we quickly become aware of its infinite complexity, and we realize that our habitual perception of it is often inadequate. If this were not so, the concept of deception would be meaningless.

  Dalai Lama

  Humility, Reality, Perception

  The Dalai Lama (2012). “The Essence Of Wisdom”, p.15, Hachette UK

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• Whatever deceives men seems to produce a magical enchantment.

  Plato

  Plato, Philosophical, Men

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• I have often heard, "I love God but just don't like His people." This may sound glib, but as John explained, this is a basic deception as we do not really love God unless we also love His people. The Scriptures also go to great lengths to explain that love is not to be based on whether people are lovable or not.

  Rick Joyner

  Love, People, Sound

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• 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

  Errors, People, Mind

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• Invoking brings the heart closer to the hereafter and keeps the world away from the heart, even though the world is around it. Invoking warns the heedless heart to abandon its pleasures and deceptions.

  Ibn Ata Allah

  Heart, World, Pleasure

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• 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.

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• Since in the long run deception is likely to be found out, your character had better not only seem good, but be it.

  F. L. Lucas

  Running, Honesty, Character

  F. L. Lucas (2012). “Style: The Art of Writing Well”, p.30, Harriman House Limited

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• Deception is a state of mind and the mind of the State.

  James Jesus Angleton

  Country, Government, Historical

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• You must keep your honor! You can't speak for the country; you can do little about the national economy or actions of moral weaklings who excuse themselves with the expression, "That is politics; nor can you be responsible for deception in others. But you are responsible for yourself! There are no collective panaceas - only individual ones."

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Country, Expression, Individuality

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• The church today is riddled with fad doctrines and new sounds that distract from the clear message of the Great commission in the New Testament. Any message that attracts you which does not bring glory to Christ is the message of a seducing spirit and the man giving it is in deception.

  John Hagee

  Men, Church Today, Giving

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• The web of hypocrisy of today hangs on the frontiers of two domains, between which our time swings back and forth, attaching its fine threads of deception and self-deception. No longer vigorous enough to serve morality without doubt or weakening, not yet reckless enough to live wholly to egoism, it trembles now toward the one and now toward the other in the spider-web of hypocrisy, and, crippled by the curse of halfness, catches only miserable, stupid flies.

  Max Stirner

  Stupid, Swings, Self

  Max Stirner, David Leopold (1995). “Stirner: The Ego and Its Own”, p.51, Cambridge University Press

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• Unlike a mere deception or a simple secret, which gives the impression that something's been taken away, a great magician makes you feel like something's been given to you.

  Jim Steinmeyer

  Taken, Simple, Giving

  Jim Steinmeyer, Teller (2009). “Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear”, p.22, Da Capo Press

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• Our myths are so many, our vision so dim, our self-deception so deep and our smugness so gross that scarcely any way now remains of reporting the American Century except from behind the billboards.

  Nelson Algren

  Self, Vision, Smugness

  Nelson Algren (1998). “Nonconformity: Writing on Writing”, p.85, Seven Stories Press

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• I expected so much from life and if I had not seen it so close, I would to this day be expecting something. What treasures I discovered in my own soul - where are they all? I have exchanged them for the world's coin, given my frankness, my first passion - and for what? For bitter disillusionment, for the knowledge that all is deception, all is brittle, that one can place trust neither in oneself nor in others - and I have come to fear both others and myself. I have not been able, along with this analysis, to accept the trifles of life and be content with them, as many others do.

  Ivan Goncharov

  Passion, Soul, Expecting Something

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• Washington has become our Versailles. We are ruled, entertained, and informed by courtiers -- and the media has evolved into a class of courtiers. The Democrats, like the Republicans, are mostly courtiers. Our pundits and experts, at least those with prominent public platforms, are courtiers. We are captivated by the hollow stagecraft of political theater as we are ruthlessly stripped of power. It is smoke and mirrors, tricks and con games, and the purpose behind it is deception.

  Chris Hedges

  Games, Class, Mirrors

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