Intrigue Quotes

• All the public business in Congress now connects itself with intrigues, and there is great danger that the whole government will degenerate into a struggle of cabals.

  John Quincy Adams

  Struggle, Government, Degenerates

  John Quincy Adams (2017). “John Quincy Adams: Diaries 1779-1821”, p.564, Library of America

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• If you pass something every day and it has a little character, it begins to intrigue you.

  Frank Auerbach

  Character, Littles, Ifs

  "Surfaces and depths" by John O'Mahony, www.theguardian.com. September 15, 2001.

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• What you don't know intrigues you more than what you do know.

  Loretta Young

  Knows

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• It is not easy to find something that will intrigue and bind your interest and enthusiasm. This you must seek for yourself.

  Walter Annenberg

  Enthusiasm, Easy, Interest

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• Some people hide more than others, and it does intrigue me.

  Tori Amos

  People, Doe

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• Society bristles with enigmas which look hard to solve. It is a perfect maze of intrigue.

  Honore de Balzac

  Perfect, Mazes, Looks

  Honore de Balzac (2011). “Letters of Two Brides”, p.39, The Floating Press

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• Our part is to pursue with steadiness what is right, turning neither to right nor left for the intrigues or popular delusions of the day, assured that the public approbation will in the end be with us.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Ends, Delusion, Pursue

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin. Reports and opinions while Secretary of State”, p.238

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• Do what intrigues you, explore what interests you; think mystery, not mastery.

  Julia Cameron

  Thinking, Mastery, Mystery

  FaceBook post by Julia Cameron from Apr 28, 2014

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• New dramatic writing has banished conversational dialogue from the stage as a relic of dramaturgy based on conflict and exchange: any story, intrigue or plot that is too neatly tied up is suspect.

  Patrice Pavis

  Writing, Plot, Stories

  Patrice Pavis (2003). “Theatre at the Crossroads of Culture”, p.57, Routledge

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• God wants to change us so much that it intrigues others.

  Francis Chan

  Want

  Francis Chan, Preston Sprinkle (2014). “The Francis Chan Collection: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, Erasing Hell, and Multiply”, p.382, David C Cook

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• Every woman is at heart a rake.

  Alexander Pope

  Heart, Rakes

  1735 Epistles to Several Persons,'To a Lady', l.215-8.

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• To forego even ambition when the end is gained - who can say this is not greatness?

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Ambition, Greatness, Ends

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1859). “The Oxford Thackeray: With Illustrations”, p.989

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• You have to think of your brand as a kind of myth. A myth is a compelling story that is archetypal, if you know the teachings of Carl Jung. It has to have emotional content and all the themes of a great story: mystery, magic, adventure, intrigue, conflicts, contradiction, paradox.

  Deepak Chopra

  Teaching, Adventure, Emotional

  "Deepak Chopra: The Two Questions Every Business Leader Has to Ask". Interview with Eric Schurenberg, www.cbsnews.com. January 25, 2011.

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• The way a child discovers the world constantly replicates the way science began. You start to notice what's around you, and you get very curious about how things work. How things interrelate. It's as simple as seeing a bug that intrigues you. You want to know where it goes at night; who its friends are; what it eats.

  David Cronenberg

  Children, Simple, Night

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• Every hero is a Samson. The strong man succumbs to the intrigues of the weak and the many; and if in the end he loses all patience he crushes both them and himself.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Crush, Strong, Hero

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Studies in Pessimism: Top of Schopenhauer”, p.63, 谷月社

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• If often happens too, both in courts and in cabinets, that there are two things going on together,--a main plot and an under-plot; and he that understands only one of them will, in all probability, be the dupe of both. A mistress may rule a monarch, but some obscure favorite may rule the mistress.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Two, Mistress, Together

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.56

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• History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance.

  James Madison

  Lying, Mean, Government

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• That is what intrigues me; songwriting and song structure and expression.

  Geddy Lee

  Song, Expression, Structure

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• The fact that people will pay you to talk to people and travel to interesting places and write about what intrigues you, I am just amazed by that.

  Nicholas D. Kristof

  Travel, Writing, People

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• Diplomacy is a disguised war, in which states seek to gain by barter and intrigue, by the cleverness of arts, the objectives which they would have to gain more clumsily by means of war.

  Randolph Bourne

  Art, War, Mean

  "Diplomacy is a Disguised War: Obama’s Diplomatic 'Sleight-of-hand'" by Peter Fay, www.globalresearch.ca. March 22, 2011.

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• When women oppose themselves to the projects and ambition of men, they excite their lively resentment; if in their youth they meddle with political intrigues, their modesty must suffer.

  Madame de Stael

  Ambition, Men, Political

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• Anything is possible on a train: a great meal, a binge, a visit from card players, an intrigue, a good night's sleep, and strangers' monologues framed like Russian short stories.

  Paul Theroux

  Good Night, Sleep, Player

  Paul Theroux (2006). “The Great Railway Bazaar”, p.9, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• We send our [peacekeepers] off to some disputed zone, full of local intrigue and power blocs and uncertainty and danger, and they are supposed to save lives not with their weapons, but through their competence and their character. And they do it.

  Romeo LeBlanc

  Character, Weapons, Save A Life

  Speech on the occasion of the presentation of the insignia of the Order of Military Merit, February 05, 1997.

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• Muhammad is more human, more self-doubting, even self-tortured at times. His story is full of adventure, intrigue, betrayal.

  Deepak Chopra

  Betrayal, Adventure, Self

  "Understanding Deepak Chopra’s Vision Of Muhammad". Interview with Nicole Neroulias, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 18, 2010.

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• Most people like to read about intrigue and spies. I hope to provide a metaphor for the average reader's daily life. Most of us live in a slightly conspiratorial relationship with our employer and perhaps with our marriage.

  John le Carre

  Average, People, Spy

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