Pretension Quotes

• Let's not be naive, we're not talking about a simple political battle; it is a destructive pretension against the plan of God. We are not talking about a mere bill, but rather a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.

  Pope Francis

  Children, Father, Lying

  "Is There Hope for Francis on Gay Rights?" by Richard Socarides, www.newyorker.com. March 13, 2013.

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• It is no disgrace not to be able to do everything; but to undertake, or pretend to do, what you are not made for, is not only shameful, but extremely troublesome and vexatious.

  Plutarch

  Able, Made, Disgrace

  Plutarch (1871). “Plutarch's Morals”, p.72

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• As a general rule, people who flagrantly pretend to anything are the reverse of that which they pretend to. A man who sets up for a saint is sure to be a sinner; and a man who boasts that he is a sinner is sure to have some feeble, maudlin, snivelling bit of saintship about him which is enough to make him a humbug.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Men, People, Saint

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• The only good in pretending is the fun we get out of fooling ourselves that we fool somebody.

  Booth Tarkington

  Fun, Fool, Pretending

  Newton Booth Tarkington (2015). “Alice Adams”, p.247, Booklassic

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• Pretension almost always overdoes the original, and hence exposes itself.

  Hosea Ballou

  Being Original, Originals

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• The world is his who can see through its pretension. What deafness, what stone-blind custom, what overgrown error you behold, is there only by sufferance,--by your sufferance. See it to be a lie, and you have already dealt it its mortal blow.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Lying, Blow, Errors

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.71, Penguin

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• The world is a collective madhouse, its inhabitants are merely faking sanity. It is critical to becoming aware of these aberrations, for pretensions can be the enemy of love.

  John Astin

  Enemy, Becoming, Aberration

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• Pretensions to moral superiority are devastatingly destructive.

  Mary Douglas

  Moral, Destructive, Superiority

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• The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Business, Men, Hug

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2000). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.812, Modern Library

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• I forgive all personal weaknesses except egomania and pretension.

  Herb Kelleher

  Forgiving, Weakness, Egomania

  "The 'I Am' Q&A". CNBC interview, www.cnbc.com.

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• Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Life, Dance, Being Yourself

  "Margot Fonteyn : Autobiography‎" by Margot Fonteyn, (p. 81), 1975.

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• God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.

  William Shakespeare

  God, Fake People, Being Yourself

  William Shakespeare, Nick De Somogyi (2001). “Hamlet: The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke : the First Folio of 1623 and a Parallel Modern Edition”, p.106, Nick Hern Books

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• Who makes the fairest show means most deceit.

  Pericles

  Mean, Deceit, Show Me

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• The world is his who can see through its pretension.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  World, Deafness, American Scholar

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.71, Penguin

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• A snob is that man or woman who is always pretending to be something better--especially richer or more fashionable--than he is.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Men, Pretending, Snob

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• I come from very common stock, and I've always been uncomfortable with pretension and all the forms it can take, including disingenuous broadcasting.

  Tom Bodett

  Common, Broadcasting, Form

  "Actually, Motel 6 Doesn't Leave the Light on for You". Interview with Kimberly D. Williams, adage.com. August 30, 2007.

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• Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed; nature never pretends.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Nature, Borrowed, Has Beens

  "Mental Recreation; or, Select Maxims". Anonymous author, p. 234, 1831.

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• We are in a position of financial and social power, and we could be agents of change in our society. Without pretension, I believe we could be a nice little gardener who takes care of the garden, and hopefully our neighbor will do the same. Then, maybe we'll achieve a better world.

  Guy Laliberte

  Nice, Believe, Garden

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• In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension and also a deep desire for respectability.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Faith, Desire, Economics

  The New York Times Magazine, June 07, 1970.

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• Science makes no pretension to eternal truth or absolute truth.

  Eric Temple Bell

  Absolute Truth, Eternal, Absolutes

  Eric Temple Bell (1988). “Mathematics, queen and servant of science”, Tempus Books

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• American journalism (like the journalism of any other country) is predominantly paltry and worthless. Its pretensions are enormous, but its achievements are insignificant.

  H. L. Mencken

  Country, Achievement, Journalism

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.95, Knopf

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• We all wear some disguise, make some professions, use some artifice, to set ourselves off as being better than we are; and yet it is not denied that we have some good intentions and praiseworthy qualities at bottom.

  William Hazlitt

  Quality, Use, Good Intentions

  William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.29

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• The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in.

  Frank Herbert

  Greatness, Feelings, Myth

  Frank Herbert (2003). “Dune”, p.116, Penguin

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• To copy beauty forfeits all pretense to fame; to copy faults is want of sense

  Charles Churchill

  Want, Faults, Fame

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• The hardest tumble a man can make is to fall over his own bluff.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Wisdom, Clever, Lying

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