Pretension Quotes - Page 2

• I think people can stand to take themselves just a little less seriously. I'm fighting the war against pretension.

  Kesha

  War, Fighting, Thinking

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• What encouragement the apostle holds out to us. O my friends, that we might leave all our pretensions, and come to the truth in our own hearts.

  Elias Hicks

  Encouragement, Heart, Might

  Elias Hicks (1828). “The Quaker, Being a Series of Sermons by Members of the Society of Friends ...”, p.219

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• I have no pretensions whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man.

  Jane Austen

  Men, Prejudice, Kind

  Jane Austen (1853). “Pride and Prejudice”, p.97

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• A Senate vote on gay marriage is a destructive pretension against the plan of God

  Pope Francis

  Gay, Vote, Plans

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• Affectation is an awkward and forced imitation of what should be genuine and easy, wanting the beauty that accompanies what is natural.

  John Locke

  Awkward, Easy, Imitation

  John Locke, John Milton (1830). “Some thoughts concerning education”, p.79

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  Sex is full of lies. The body tries to tell the truth. But, it's usually too battered with rules to be heard, and bound with pretenses so it can hardly move. We cripple ourselves with lies.

  Jim Morrison

  Sex, Truth, Honesty

  "Into This House We're Born". Book by James Hunt, p. 262, July 1, 2006.

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• You must not under any pretense allow your mind to dwell on any thought that is not positive, constructive, optimistic, kind.

  Emmet Fox

  Positive, Niece, Optimistic

  Emmet Fox (1940). “Power Through Constructive Thinking”

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• I didn't come from any kind of academic background, but I lived in a college town and I knew people who weren't without pretense. There was this idea in the town that if something was European it would be good.

  Sarah Vowell

  College, Ideas, People

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• It is not poverty so much as pretense that harasses a ruined man.

  Washington Irving

  Men, Poverty, Ruined

  Washington Irving (2006). “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories From the Sketch Book”, p.33, Penguin

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• Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he or she is in. That person must reflect what is projected upon him or her.

  Frank Herbert

  Greatness, Imagination, Feelings

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• It would be futile to attempt to fit women into a masculine pattern of attitudes, skills and abilities and disastrous to force them to suppress their specifically female characteristics and abilities by keeping up the pretense that there are no differences between the sexes.

  Arianna Huffington

  Sex, Attitude, Skills

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• The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Honesty, Men, Air

  "Many Thoughts of Many Minds" edited by Henry Southgate, (p. 290), 1862.

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• The basic fault lines today are not between people with different beliefs but between people who hold these beliefs with an element of uncertainty and people who hold these beliefs with a pretense of certitude

  Peter L. Berger

  People, Lines, Today

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• The pious pretense that evil does not exist only makes it vague, enormous and menacing.

  Aleister Crowley

  Evil, Vagueness, Doe

  "The Confessions of Aleister Crowley". Book by Aleister Crowley. Chapter 33, 1969.

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• Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.

  Eric Hoffer

  Trust, Beauty, Math

  Eric Hoffer (1955). “The passionate state of mind, and other aphorisms”

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• I ask every Communist individually to set an example, by deeds and without pretense, a real example worthy of a man and a Communist, in restoring order, starting normal life, in resuming work and production, and in laying the foundations of an ordered life.

  Janos Kadar

  Teamwork, Real, Men

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• Most of the confidence which I appear to feel, especially when influenced by noon wine, is only a pretense.

  Tennessee Williams

  Confidence, Fake People, Wine

  "New Selected Essays: Where I Live". Book edited by John S. Bak and John Lahr, New Directions Publishing, "I am widely regarded as the ghost of a writer," (1977), 2009.

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• It is not poverty so much as pretense that harasses a ruined man - the struggle between a proud mind and an empty purse - the keeping up of a hollow show that must soon come to an end.

  Washington Irving

  Struggle, Men, Mind

  Washington Irving (2006). “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories From the Sketch Book”, p.33, Penguin

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• No, I make no pretension to patriotism. So long as my voice can be heard on this or the other side of the Atlantic, I will hold up America to the lightning scorn of moral indignation. In doing this, I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot; for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins.

  Frederick Douglass

  Country, Voice, America

  Speech at Market Hall, New York, N.Y., 22 Oct. 1847

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• Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.

  William Hazlitt

  Believe, Animal, Men

  William Hazlitt (1826). “Notes of a journey through France and Italy ...”, p.246

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• Nearly everywhere monarchs raised themselves further above the level of the greatest nobles and buttressed their new pretensions to respect and authority with cannons and taxation.

  John Roberts

  Taxation, Levels, Authority

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• Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit.

  Freda Adler

  Funny, Philosophical, Humor

  "Sisters in Crime: The Rise of the New Female Criminal". Book by Freda Adler, 1975.

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• To a superior race of being the pretensions of mankind to extraordinary sanctity and virtue must seem... ridiculous.

  William Hazlitt

  Race, Ridiculous, Virtue

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.486

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• They're innocent movies, and they're fun movies and there were no pretensions about 'em.

  Alex Winter

  Movie, Fun, Ems

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

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• For in religion as in friendship, they who profess most are ever the least sincere.

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan

  Sincere

  Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1833). “The Works of the Late Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Collected by Thomas Moore ... A New Edition ... With a Biographical Sketch”, p.77

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