Trickery Quotes

• The craftiest trickery are too short and ragged a cloak to cover a bad heart.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Heart, Deception, Too Short

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• It seems to me that there are two kinds of trickery: the "fronts" people assume before one another's eyes, and the "front" a writer puts on the face of reality.

  Francoise Sagan

  Eye, Reality, Two

  "Françoise Sagan, The Art of Fiction No. 15". Interview with Blair Fuller and Robert B. Silvers, www.theparisreview.org. Autumn 1956.

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• The generous abundance of her passion, without guile or trickery, was like a white flame which penetrated and found response in depths of his own sensuous nature that had never yet been reached.

  Kate Chopin

  Passion, Flames, White

  Kate Chopin (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Kate Chopin (Illustrated)”, p.845, Delphi Classics

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• Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.
  
  Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

  Max Ehrmann

  Being Yourself, Exercise, Cynical

  Max Ehrmann (2003). “Desiderata: A Survival Guide for Life”, p.9, Andrews McMeel Publishing

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• No, life has not disappointed me. On the contrary, I find it truer, more desirable and mysterious every year -- ever since the day when the great liberator came to me: the idea that life could be an experiment of the seeker for knowledge -- and not a duty, not a calamity, not trickery.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Years, Ideas, Mysterious

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2010). “The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs”, p.255, Vintage

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• We heard stories about fakery and decoys at revivals. I never personally saw any trickery.

  Kathie Lee Gifford

  Stories, Saws, Revival

  Kathie Lee Gifford, Jim Jerome (1993). “I Can't Believe I Said That!”, Pocket

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• It's a sad day when the leaders of the free world engage in such deception and trickery. I voted against this unnecessary war and will continue to argue that the best way to support our troops is to bring them home.

  Major Owens

  War, Home, Hype

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• There is as much trickery required to grow rich by a stupid book as there is folly in buying it.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Stupid, Book, Reading

  "The "Characters" of Jean de la Bruyère". Book by Jean de La Bruyère. Translated by Henri Van Laun, 1885.

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• Credulity forges more miracles than trickery could invent.

  Joseph Joubert

  Miracle, Credulity

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• There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Stupid, Would Be, Fraud

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.60

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• Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.

  Sun Tzu

  Life, Strength, Wisdom

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• He who uses trickery should at least make use of his judgment to learn that he can scarcely hide treacherous conduct for very long among clever men who are determined to find him out, although they may pretend to be deceived in order to disguise their knowledge of his deceitfulness.

  Madeleine de Souvre, marquise de Sable

  Clever, Learning, Men

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  The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Art

  Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.444, GENERAL PRESS

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• All violence is the result of people tricking themselves into believing that their pain derives from other people and that consequently those people deserve to be punished.

  Marshall B. Rosenberg

  Encouragement, Pain, Believe

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• Storytelling: the world's second oldest profession.

  Danny Harris

  World, Superstitions, Storytelling

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• Of course I'm trying to trick you! That's the way of the world, Baudelaires. Everyone runs around with their secrets and their schemes, trying to outwit everyone else.

  Daniel Handler

  Running, Secret, Trying

  "The End". Book by Daniel Handler, 2006.

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• ...History shows that ... (people) can be deflected from their natural tendencies by artful propaganda, bogus crises, or other political trickery.

  Robert Higgs

  Peace, War, People

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• There are not anywhere else so many ways of trickery, so many false lights, so many veils, so many guises, so many illusive deceits, as are practiced in every man's conscience in respect to his motives, thoughts, feelings, conduct, and character.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Character, Men, Light

  Henry Ward Beecher (1873). “The Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn”, p.35

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• A Warrior of Light never resorts to trickery, but he knows how to distract his opponent.

  Paulo Coelho

  Warrior, Light, Opponents

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• It’s in the very trickery that it pleases me. But show me how the trick is done, and I have lost my interest therein.

  Seneca the Younger

  Please Me, Done, Lost

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• And not only the pride of intellect, but the stupidity of intellect. And, above all, the dishonesty, yes, the dishonesty of intellect. Yes, indeed, the dishonesty and trickery of intellect.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Pride, Stupidity, Dishonesty

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• I certainly never believed, more or less, in the "essential doctrines" of Christianity, which represent God as the predestinator of men to sin and perdition, and Christ as their rescuer from that doom. I never was more or less behuiled by the trickery of language by which the perdition of man is made out to be justice, and his redemption to be mercy.

  Harriet Martineau

  Men, Justice, Atheism

  Harriet Martineau (2006). “Autobiography”, p.60, Broadview Press

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• A business model that relies on trickery is doomed to fail.

  Charlie Munger

  Failing, Rely, Models

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• I do not pray. . . . I do not expect God to single me out and grant me advantages over my fellow men. . . . Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Prayer, Responsibility, Men

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• Writing for me always requires trickery. Tricking myself into sitting down, letting words tumble out until you find the good ones. It's sort of a trance. And when a piece is done, I have little memory of how I wrote it, and zero confidence I'd ever be able to do it again.

  John Hodgman

  Zero, Memories, Writing

  "John Hodgman Discusses 'More Information Than You Require'". Online chat, www.washingtonpost.com. October 29, 2008.

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