Knaves Quotes - Page 3

• I am always afraid of a fool. One cannot be sure that he is not a knave as well.

  William Hazlitt

  Fool, Wells

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.492

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• The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, all on a hot summer's day. The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts. The mad Queen said, "Off with his head! Off with his head! Off with his head!" Well... that's too bad... no more heads to cut.

  Jun Mochizuki

  Summer, Queens, Heart

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• None are so busy as the fool and the knave.

  John Dryden

  Fool, Busy

  John Dryden, “The Medal”

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• The honest Man takes Pains, and then enjoys Pleasures; the knave takes Pleasure, and then suffers Pains.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Pain, Men, Suffering

  Benjamin Franklin (2012). “Wit and Wisdom from Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.18, Courier Corporation

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• I said you lie, knave!” shouted Beaumains, drawing his sword. “And for telling such craven falsehoods, you must die!” The knight looked plaintively at Roger. “What’s wrong with this fellow?” He was dropped on his head when he was a baby,” answered Roger.

  Gerald Morris

  Baby, Lying, Knights

  Gerald Morris (2008). “The Savage Damsel and the Dwarf”, p.97, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• He that dies a martyr proves that he was not a knave, but by no means that he was not a fool; since the most absurd doctrines are not without such evidence as martyrdom can produce. A martyr, therefore, by the mere act of suffering, can prove nothing but his own faith.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Mean, Suffering, Doctrine

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.199

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• Even virtue followed beyond reason's rule May stamp the just man knave, the sage a fool.

  Horace

  Men, Sage, May

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• No flattery, boy! an honest man cannot live by it; it is a little, sneaking art, which knaves use to cajole and soften fools withal.

  Thomas Otway

  Art, Men, Boys

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• Pay attention to minute particulars. Take care of the little ones. Generalization and abstraction are the plea of the hypocrite, scoundrel, and knave.

  William Blake

  Hypocrite, Hypocrisy, Attention

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• Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity than straigthforward and simple integrity in another. A knave would rather quarrel with a brother knave than with a fool, but he would rather avoid a quarrel with one honest man than with both. He can combat a fool by management and address, and he can conquer a knave by temptations. But the honest man is neither to be bamboozled nor bribed.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Brother, Integrity, Simple

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• Innate ideas are in every man, born with him; they are truly himself. The man who says that we have no innate ideas must be a fool and knave, having no conscience or innate science.

  William Blake

  Men, Ideas, Fool

  William Blake (1926). “Preface. General introduction index of symbols. Appendices: The book of Thel. Tiriel. Notes to Reynolds's Discourses. Descriptive catalogue of pictures. 1809. Prose from the Rossetti ms. Table of substituted capitals. Index to foot-notes, &c”, Oxford University Press

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• How strange it is, that a fool or knave, with riches, should be treated with more respect by the world, than a good man, or a wise man in poverty!

  Ann Radcliffe

  Wise, Men, Good Man

  Ann Radcliffe (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ann Radcliffe (Illustrated)”, p.1096, Delphi Classics

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• 

  So long as women are slaves, men will be knaves.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Equality, Men, Long

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriot (Stanton). Blatch (Mrs) (1922). “Elizabeth Cady Stanton as revealed in her letters, diary and reminiscences”

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• A man who first tried to guess 'what the public wants,' and then preached that as Christianity because the public wants it, would be a pretty mixture of fool and knave

  C. S. Lewis

  Men, Religion, Would Be

  C. S. Lewis (2002). “Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer”, p.124, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Wickedness may prosper for awhile, but in the long run, he that sets all the knaves at work will pay them.

  Roger L'Estrange

  Running, Work, Long

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• Who are next to knaves? Those that converse with them.

  Alexander Pope

  Next, Converses

  Alexander Pope, Alexander Chalmers (1807). “A Supplementary Volume to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq: Containing Pieces of Poetry, Not Inserted in Warburton's and Warton's Editions : and a Collection of Letters, Now First Published”, p.129

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• The art of manipulating public opinion, which is a necessary art for the democratic politician, and, like other arts, is sometimespractised with greater virtuosity by knaves than by honest men (who are apt to disdain it), has a different technique in different countries. For instance, in England we excel in whitewashing: in America they excel in tarring and feathering. We strain our nerves and stretch our consciences to avoid a scandal: Americans do the same to make one.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Country, Art, Men

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• Earth bears no balsams for mistakes;
  Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool
  That did his will: but thou, O Lord,
  Be merciful to me, a fool.

  Edward Rowland Sill

  Prayer, Mistake, Men

  Edward Rowland Sill, “The Fool's Prayer”

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• An entirely honest man, in the severe sense of the word, exists no more than an entirely dishonest knave: the best and the worst are only approximations of those qualities. Who are those that never contradict themselves? yet honesty never contradicts itself: Who are those that always contradict themselves? yet knavery is mere self-contradiction. Thus the knowledge of man determines not the things themselves, but their proportions, the quan∣tum of congruities and incongruities.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Honesty, Men, Self

  "Aphorisms on man. Translated from the original manuscript of the Rev. John Caspar Lavater, citizen of Zuric. ; [One line from Juvenal]" by Johann Kaspar Lavater, 1790.

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• Although knaves win in every political struggle, although society seems to be delivered over from the hands of one set of criminals into the hands of another set of criminals, as fast as the government is changed, and the march of civilization is a train of felonies, yet, general ends are somehow answered.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Struggle, Winning, Government

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “The Later Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1843-1871”, p.99, University of Georgia Press

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• Seeming devotion does but gild a knave,
  That's neither faithful, honest, just, nor brave;
  But where religion does with virtue join,
  It makes a hero like an angel shine.

  Edmund Waller

  Hero, Angel, Shining

  Edmund Waller, Elijah Fenton (1796). “The Poetical Works of Edmund Waller. From Mr. Fenton's Quarto Edition, 1729. With the Life of the Author ... Embellished with Superb Engravings [including a Portrait.]”

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• Power, when invested in the hands of knaves or fools, generally is the source of tyranny.

  Charlotte Charke

  Power, Hands, Fool

  Charlotte CHARKE (1826). “A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Charlotte Charke, youngest daughter of Colley Cibber ... Written by herself. With a portrait”

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• When a knave is in a plumtree he hath neither friend nor kin.

  George Herbert

  George Herbert (1856). “The Works of George Herbert, in Prose and Verse: Edited by the Rev. Robert Aris Willmott, Incumbent of Bear Wood. With Illustrations”, p.318

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• O heart, be at peace, because
  Nor knave nor dolt can break
  What's not for their applause,
  Being for a woman's sake.

  William Butler Yeats

  Heart, Poetry, Sake

  William Butler Yeats (2011). “Selected Poems And Four Plays”, p.33, Simon and Schuster

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• My first lead role was a stage play called A Kestrel for a Knave. I was 11.

  Justin Chadwick

  Play, Roles, Firsts

  "Justin Chadwick and the Madiba Effect". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 26, 2013.

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