Dupes Quotes

• A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.

  Demosthenes

  Believe, Men, Religion

  "The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations" by Robert Andrews, (p. 255), 1987.

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• Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens.

  William Beveridge

  Weed, Ignorance, Marijuana

  "Full Employment in a Free Society". Book by William Beveridge, Part 7, 1944.

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• The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots.

  Elbridge Gerry

  America, People, Evil

  Constitutional Convention, May 31, 1787.

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• Education must have two foundations --morality as a support for virtue, prudence as a defense for self against the vices of others. By letting the balance incline to the side of morality, you only make dupes or martyrs; by letting it incline to the other, you make calculating egoists.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Education, Self, Two

  Sébastien-Roch-Nicolas Chamfort (1902). “The Cynic's Breviary: Maxims and Anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort”

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• As to the deceit perpetrated upon women, let it pass, for, when love is in the way, men and women as a general rule dupe each other.

  Giacomo Casanova

  Lying, Love Is, Men

  Giacomo Casanova (2013). “The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt: Complete”, p.26, Simon and Schuster

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• The human comedy is always tragic, but since its ingredients are always the same - dupe, fox, straight, like burlesque skits - the repetition through the ages is comedy.

  Dawn Powell

  Age, Ingredients, Foxes

  Dawn Powell (1998). “The Diaries of Dawn Powell: 1931-1965”, Zoland Books

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• If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars.

  Arthur Hugh Clough

  Liars, Lying, May

  'Say not the struggle naught availeth' (1855)

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• The dupe of friendship, and the fool of love; have I not reason to hate and to despise myself? Indeed I do; and chiefly for not having hated and despised the world enough.

  William Hazlitt

  Hate, Lost Friendship, World

  'The Plain Speaker' (1826) 'On the Pleasure of Hating'

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• A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself. He would make a dupe of himself too, if he could.

  William Hazlitt

  Respect, Hypocrite, Hype

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.142

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• We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a victory not to be despised for a fool is covered with steel and it is often very hard to find his vulnerable part.

  Giacomo Casanova

  Victory, Steel, Fool

  Giacomo Casanova “The Complete Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt”, Library of Alexandria

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• PHRENOLOGY, n. The science of picking the pocket through the scalp. It consists in locating and exploiting the organ that one is a dupe with.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Science, Pockets, Phrenology

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.181, University of Georgia Press

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• A forward critic often dupes us With sham quotations peri hupsos, And if we have not read Longinus, Will magisterially outshine us. Then, lest with Greek he over-run ye, Procure the book for love or money, Translated from Boileau's translation, And quote quotation on quotation.

  Jonathan Swift

  Running, Book, Greek

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• It's not mere extremism that makes folks at the fringes so troubling; it's extremism wedded to false beliefs. Humans have long been dupes, easily gulled by rumors and flat-out lies.

  Jeffrey Kluger

  Lying, Long, Rumor

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• Men are such dupes by choice, that he who would impose upon others never need be at a loss to find ready victims.

  Honore de Balzac

  Loss, Men, Choices

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• Women are ever the dupes or the victims of their extreme sensitiveness.

  Honore de Balzac

  Emotion, Victim, Extremes

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• When the spirit is not master of the world, then it is its dupe.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hero, World, Spirit

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1362, Delphi Classics

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• The credulity of dupes is as inexhaustible as the invention of knaves.

  Edmund Burke

  Knaves, Invention, Credulity

  Edmund Burke (1852). “The Works and Correspondance of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke”, p.363

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• If Satan ever laughs, it must be at hypocrites; they are the greatest dupes he has.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Hypocrite, Laughing, Hypocrisy

  Charles Caleb COLTON (1849). “L.P.”, p.221

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• PATRIOT, n. One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to those of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Sarcastic, Tools, Patriot

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.179, University of Georgia Press

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• Turning, then, from this loathsome combination of church and state, and weeping over the follies of our fellow men, who yield themselves the willing dupes and drudges of these mountebanks, I consider reformation and redress as desperate, and abandon them to the Quixotism of more enthusiastic minds.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Yield, Mind

  Thomas Jefferson (2012). “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, Volume 8: 1 October 1814 to 31 August 1815: 1 October 1814 to 31 August 1815”, p.212, Princeton University Press

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• Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life.

  Kate Chopin

  Suffering, Wake Up, Awakening

  The Awakening ch. 38 (1899)

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• A man's own vanity is a swindler that never lacks for a dupe.

  Honore de Balzac

  Men, Vanity, Swindlers

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• There are science teachers who actually claim that they teach "a healthy skepticism." They do not. They teach a profound gullibility, and their dupes, trained not to think for themselves, will swallow any egregious rot, provided it is dressed up with long words and an affectation of objectivity to make it sound scientific.

  Anthony Standen

  Teacher, Science, Thinking

  Anthony Standen (1950). “Science is a sacred cow”

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• The bonds between ourselves and another person exists only in our minds. Memory as it grows fainter loosens them, and notwithstanding the illusion by which we want to be duped and which, out of love, friendship, politeness, deference, duty, we dupe other people, we exist alone. Man is the creature who cannot escape from himself, who knows other people only in himself, and when he asserts the contrary, he is lying.

  Marcel Proust

  Memories, Lying, Men

  Marcel Proust (2010). “In Search Of Lost Time, Vol 5: The Captive & The Fugitive”, p.515, Random House

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• Evil always wins through the strength of its splendid dupes; and there has in all ages been a disastrous alliance between abnormal innocence and abnormal sin.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Winning, Evil, Age

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