Deception Quotes - Page 9

• deception and 'con games' are a way of life in all species and throughout nature. Organisms that do not improve their ability to deceive - and to detect deception - are less apt to survive.

  Harriet Lerner

  Games, Way, Deceiving

  Harriet Lerner (2009). “The Dance of Deception: Pretending and Truth-Telling in Women's”, p.19, Harper Collins

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• The assumption that seeing is believing makes us susceptible to visual deception.

  Kathleen Hall Jamieson

  Believe, Assumption, Seeing Is Believing

  Kathleen Hall Jamieson (1993). “Dirty Politics: Deception, Distraction, and Democracy”, p.46, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• If the world is an aggregate of relatively independent regions, then any assumption of universal laws is false and a demand for universal norms tyrannical: only brute force (or seductive deception) can then bend the different moralities so that they fit the prescriptions of a single ethical system. And indeed, the idea of universal laws of nature and society arose in connection with a life-and-death battle: the battle that gave Zeus the power over the Titans and all other gods and thus turned his laws into the laws of the universe.

  Paul Feyerabend

  Independent, Ideas, Law

  "Farewell to Reason". Book by Paul Feyerabend, 1987.

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• Everywhere you go on the continent of Europe at this hour you see the conflict between militarism and industrialism. You see the expansion of industrial power pushed forward by the energy, hope, and thrift of men, and you see the development arrested, diverted, crippled, and defeated by measures which are dictated by military considerations.

  William Graham Sumner

  Military, Power, Men

  William Graham Sumner (1919). “War and Other Essays”

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• It is easy to become the dupe of a deferred purpose, of the promise the future can never keep, and I had fallen into the meanest type of self-deception in making myself believe that all this was in preparation for great things to come.

  Jane Addams

  Believe, Self, Promise

  Jane Addams (2010). “The Selected Papers of Jane Addams: Vol. 2: Venturing into Usefulness”, p.601, University of Illinois Press

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• Good science is more than the mechanics of research and experimentation. Good science requires that scientists look inward-to contemplate the origin of their thoughts. The failures of science do not begin with flawed evidence or fumbled statistics; they begin with personal self-deception and an unjustified sense of knowing.

  Robert A. Burton

  Humility, Self, Knowing

  Robert A. Burton, M.D., M.D. (2008). “On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not”, p.170, Macmillan

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• The American people, Neil, are sick and tired of excuses. They are sick and tired of the blame game. And they're sick and tired of the deception coming from this president and this administration. This is why I believe that I am doing so well in the polls.

  Herman Cain

  Believe, Tired, Games

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• An economy where advertisers thrive while journalists and artists struggle, reflects the values of a society more interested in deception and manipulation than in truth and beauty

  Jaron Lanier

  Struggle, Artist, Manipulation

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• Maturity is the ability to sort the portions of truth from the accepted lies and self-deceptions that you have grown up with.

  Alexei Panshin

  Lying, Maturity, Self

  Alexei Panshin (1982). “Rite of passage”, Pocket

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• Spiritual deception is dangerous -and damning.

  David Platt

  Spiritual, Follow Me, Dangerous

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• No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. But it can, if it is sufficiently effective in its enforcement and if it is sufficiently in the interests of its signers, offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.

  John F. Kennedy

  Race, Risk, Enforcement

  American University Commencement Address, delivered 10 June 1963

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• The universe is an emanation of mind. As human consciousness evolves in an accelerated spiral, we are being compelled to realize that our minds are manifesting reality to an ever-increasing extent- our collective shadow-projections of wasteful technologies, wars, and weaponry reflect subtler interior regions of our psyche and the discordant deceptions in our intimate relationships. If this interpretation is valid, it forces upon us a concomitant responsibility, a grave burden.

  Daniel Pinchbeck

  War, Responsibility, Technology

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• They have no power over you. It's all a show, a deception. Your urges scream and bluster at you; they cajole; they coax; they threaten; but they really carry no stick at all. You give in out of habit. You give in because you never really bother to look beyond the threat. It is all empty back there. There is only one way to learn this lesson, though. The words on this page won't do it.

  Henepola Gunaratana

  Discipline, Giving, Over You

  Bhante Gunaratana, Henepola Gunaratana (2011). “Mindfulness in Plain English: 20th Anniversary Edition”, p.80, Simon and Schuster

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• I used to think most Democrats in Congress who voted for [ObamaCare] really believed they were doing something good for the poor and the middle class. Now I wonder. It's crystal clear that just about everything President Barack Obama promised about his health plan was false, his deception deliberate. If Democrats really cared for the people harmed by the law, you'd think they'd admit their mistake, try to fix it. They haven't.

  Jack Kelly

  Mistake, Thinking, Law

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• Why do most great pictures look uncontrived? Why do photographers bother with the deception, especially since it so often requires the hardest work of all? The answer is, I think, that the deception is necessary if the goal of art is to be reached: only pictures that look as if they had been easily made can convincingly suggest that beauty is commonplace.

  Robert Adams

  Art, Thinking, Goal

  Robert Adams (1989). “Beauty in photography: essays in defense of traditional values”

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• Self-deception helps us deceive.

  David Livingstone

  Self, Helping, Deceiving

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• The art of a magician is not found in the simple deception, but in what surrounds it, the construction of a reality which supports the illusion.

  Jim Steinmeyer

  Art, Simple, Reality

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• All warfare is based on deception. If your enemy is superior, evade him. If angry, irritate him. If equally matched, fight and if not: split and re-evaluate.

  Sun Tzu

  Fighting, Enemy, Warfare

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• If I had had to write only about imaginary people, I would have had to close up my typewriter. I wrote about my life in less and less disguise as I grew older, and finally with no disguise - except the disguise we create for ourselves, which is self-deception.

  William Maxwell

  Writing, Typewriters, Self

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• Our capacity for self-deception has no known limits

  Michael Novak

  Self, Limits, Capacity

  Michael Novak (2011). “Ascent of the Mountain, Flight of the Dove: An Invitation to Religious Studies (Third Revised Edition)”, p.50, Transaction Publishers

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• Messin with me, is like wearing cheese underwear down rat alley. Ollie Chandler in Deception

  Randy Alcorn

  Underwear, Rats, Cheese

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• Each time the losses and deceptions of life teach us about impermanence, they bring us closer to the truth. When you fall from a great height, there is only one possible place to land: on the ground-the ground of truth. And if you have the understanding that comes from spiritual practice, then falling is in no way a disaster, but the discovery of an inner refuge.

  Sogyal Rinpoche

  Spiritual, Fall, Loss

  FaceBook post by Sogyal Rinpoche from Jul 24, 2015

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• It is a fair adornment of a man and a great convenience both to himself and to all those with whom he converses and deals, to act uprightly, uniformly, and consistently. The practice of piety frees a man from interior distraction and from irresolution in his mind, from duplicity or inconstancy in his character, and from confusion in his proceedings, and consequently securing for others freedom from deception and disappointment in their transactions with him.

  Isaac Barrow

  Disappointment, Character, Duplicity

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• An election is nothing more than the advanced auction of stolen goods.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Auctions, Election, Stolen

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• Not to be, but to seem, virtuous - it is a formula whose utility we all discovered in the nursery.

  C. S. Lewis

  Nursery, Virtuous, Formulas

  C. S. Lewis (1990). “Poetry and prose in the sixteenth century”, Oxford Univ Pr on Demand

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