β
In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
β
β
George Orwell
β
It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.
β
β
NoΓ«l Coward (Blithe Spirit)
β
Anything is better than lies and deceit!
β
β
Leo Tolstoy (Anna Karenina)
β
Dear God," she prayed, "let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry...have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere - be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.
β
β
Betty Smith (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn)
β
You are a conniving, deceitful hussy. I stand in awe."
"You're sitting."
"I sit in awe.
β
β
Laini Taylor (Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #3))
β
You backbiting, poisonous, treacherous, deceitful, wicked, clever girl. If this works I'll buy you a pony.
β
β
Jim Butcher (Summer Knight (The Dresden Files, #4))
β
Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.
β
β
Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities)
β
Nothing is more deceitful," said Darcy, "than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.
β
β
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
β
...even a tiny bit of deceit is dishonorable when it's used for selfish or cowardly reasons.
- Mr. Penderwick
β
β
Jeanne Birdsall (The Penderwicks on Gardam Street (The Penderwicks, #2))
β
Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.
β
β
NiccolΓ² Machiavelli
β
Love is deceitful and sublime. In its truest form, it brings out the best in all beings. At its worse, It's a tool used to manipulate and ruin any one who is stupid enough to hold it. Don't be stupid.
β
β
Sherrilyn Kenyon
β
I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world.
β
β
Charlotte BrontΓ« (Jane Eyre)
β
God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
β
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: But a woman who fears the Lord,
She shall be praised.
(Proverbs 31:30 Modern King James Version)
β
β
Anonymous (Modern King James Version of the Holy Bible)
β
Duringο»Ώ times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
β
β
George Orwell
β
When one with honeyed words but evil mind
Persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.
β
β
Euripides (Orestes)
β
The only thing more frustrating than slanderers is those foolish enough to listen to them.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
I am convinced that human life is filled with many pure, happy, serene examples of insincerity, truly splendid of their kind-of people deceiving one another without (strangely enough) any wounds being inflicted, of people who seem unaware even that they are deceiving one another.
β
β
Osamu Dazai (No Longer Human)
β
Love is a verb, not a noun. It is active. Love is not just feelings of passion and romance. It is behavior. If a man lies to you, he is behaving badly and unlovingly toward you. He is disrespecting you and your relationship. The words βI love youβ are not enough to make up for that. Donβt kid yourself that they are.
β
β
Susan Forward (When Your Lover Is a Liar: Healing the Wounds of Deception and Betrayal)
β
O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!
Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st,
A damned saint, an honourable villain!
O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell;
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell
In such a gorgeous palace!
β
β
William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
β
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
β
β
William Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice)
β
You say potato; I say potahto...'
'I say integrity; you say deceit.
β
β
Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely, #1))
β
When your lover is a liar, you and he have a lot in common, you're both lying to you!
β
β
Susan Forward (When Your Lover Is a Liar: Healing the Wounds of Deception and Betrayal)
β
Do not be deceived: bad company corrupts good morals.
β
β
Anonymous (The Holy Bible: King James Version)
β
But race is the child of racism, not the father. And the process of naming βthe peopleβ has never been a matter of genealogy and physiognomy so much as one of hierarchy. Difference in hue and hair is old. But the belief in the preeminence of hue and hair, the notion that these factors can correctly organize a society and that they signify deeper attributes, which are indelibleβthis is the new idea at the heart of these new people who have been brought up hopelessly, tragically, deceitfully, to believe that they are white.
β
β
Ta-Nehisi Coates (Between the World and Me)
β
You must remember, my dear lady, the most important rule of any successful illusion: First, the people must want to believe in it.
β
β
Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing (Gemma Doyle, #3))
β
Love binds, and it binds forever. Good binds while evil unravels. Separation is another word for evil; it is also another word for deceit.
β
β
Michel Houellebecq (The Elementary Particles)
β
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I water'd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunnΓ©d it with smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole,
When the night had veil'd the pole:
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree.
β
β
William Blake (Songs of Experience)
β
Her life was a tissue of vanity and deceit.
β
β
Virginia Woolf (Mrs. Dalloway)
β
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
β
β
Erasmus
β
It wasn't a question of deceit. Just the opposite; he wanted to heat up the truth, to make it burn so hot that you would feel exactly what he felt.
β
β
Tim O'Brien (The Things They Carried)
β
To find out if she really loved me, I hooked her up to a lie detector. And just as I suspected, my machine was broken.β¨
β
β
Dark Jar Tin Zoo (Love Quotes for the Ages. Specifically Ages 19-91.)
β
Nothing is easier than self-deceit.
For what every man wishes,
that he also believes to be true.
β
β
Demosthenes
β
AnaΓ―s, I don't know how to tell you what I feel. I live in perpetual expectancy. You come and the time slips away in a dream. It is only when you go that I realize completely your presence. And then it is too late. You numb me. [...] This is a little drunken, AnaΓ―s. I am saying to myself "here is the first woman with whom I can be absolutely sincere." I remember your saying - "you could fool me, I wouldn't know it." When I walk along the boulevards and think of that. I can't fool you - and yet I would like to. I mean that I can never be absolutely loyal - it's not in me. I love women, or life, too much - which it is, I don't know. But laugh, AnaΓ―s, I love to hear you laugh. You are the only woman who has a sense of gaiety, a wise tolerance - no more, you seem to urge me to betray you. I love you for that. [...]
I don't know what to expect of you, but it is something in the way of a miracle. I am going to demand everything of you - even the impossible, because you encourage it. You are really strong. I even like your deceit, your treachery. It seems aristocratic to me.
β
β
Henry Miller (A Literate Passion: Letters of AnaΓ―s Nin & Henry Miller, 1932-1953)
β
Be leery of silence. It doesn't mean you won the argument. Often, people are just busy reloading their guns.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
A deceitful man will go as far as to trample all over a womanβs reputation and spirit, in order to prove to his ex-love that he was faithful. The irony, is he is still in love with his ex and the new woman in his life doesnβt even realize it.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
Never judge someone by their relatives.
β
β
Charles Martin (Chasing Fireflies)
β
youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
β
β
Aristotle
β
A woman gets angry when a man denies his faults, because she knew them all along. His lying mocks her affection; it is the deceit that angers her more than the faults.
β
β
Fulton J. Sheen (Life Is Worth Living)
β
If anyone is unwilling to descend into himself, because this is too painful, he will remain superficial in his writing. . . If I perform to myself, then itβs this that the style expresses. And then the style cannot be my own. If you are unwilling to know what you are, your writing is a form of deceit.
β
β
Ludwig Wittgenstein
β
A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends.
β
β
Henry A. Wallace
β
There is no language without deceit.
β
β
Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities)
β
Over time, hidden truths morph in the dark soil of deceit into something much worse.
β
β
Patti Callahan Henry (Between The Tides)
β
She was a ray of sunshine, a warm summer rain, a bright fire on a cold winterβs day, and now she could be dead because she had tried to save the man she loved.
β
β
Grace Willows
β
With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear. Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.
β
β
Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities)
β
A liar is always lavish of oaths.
β
β
Pierre Corneille
β
Relationships with negative people are simply tedious encounters with porcupines. You donβt have the remote knowledge how to be close to them without quills being shot in your direction.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
Cunning grows in deceit at seeing itself discovered, and tries to deceive with truth itself.
β
β
Baltasar GraciΓ‘n (The Art of Worldly Wisdom)
β
Those who plead their cause in the absence of an opponent can invent to their heart's content, can pontificate without taking into account the opposite point of view and keep the best arguments for themselves, for aggressors are always quick to attack those who have no means of defence.
β
β
Christine de Pizan (Der Sendbrief vom Liebesgott / The Letter of the God of Love (L'Epistre au Dieu d'Amours))
β
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.
β
β
James Madison
β
When we have the knack for listening to ourselves and hearing ourselves out without flinching, we can throw down willful deafness and self-deceit and meet up with our authentic selves. (βLike a frozen imageβ)
β
β
Erik Pevernagie
β
Religion is like a blind man looking in a black room for a black cat that isn't there, and finding it.
β
β
Anonymous
β
Mirrors are perpetually deceitful. They lie and steal your true self. They reveal only what your mind believes it sees
β
β
Dee Remy (There Once Was A Boy)
β
Iβm so glad youβre okay,β she said, hugging him closely. She knew better than to ask for details. He almost never talked about the difficult parts of his police work. He said that he didnβt want to bring that home with him.Β
β
β
Mike Martin (Too Close For Comfort: The Sgt. Windflower Mystery Series Book 15)
β
What man ever openly apologizes for slander? It is not so much a feeling of slander as it is that of a massive lie, a misdeed not only to the slandered but also to those manipulated in the process. He has made them all, every one, his enemies, thereupon he is so overwhelmed with guilt that he will deny it until his grave.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
I become quite melancholy and deeply grieved to see men behave to each other as they do. Everywhere I find nothing but base flattery, injustice , self-interest, deceit and roguery. I cannot bear it any longer; I'm furious; and my intention is to break with all mankind.
β
β
Molière (The Misanthrope)
β
If your heart tells you something but your mind tells you something else, which do you believe? Both are just as apt to lie. In fact, they play at deceit all the time. Mostly they balance each other, giving us that crucial reality check. But what happens on the rare occasions when they conspire together?
β
β
Neal Shusterman (Bruiser)
β
One can say this in general of men: they are ungrateful, disloyal, insincere and deceitful, timid of danger and avid of profit...Love is a bond of obligation that these miserable creatures break whenever it suits them to do so; but fear holds them fast by a dread of punishment that never passes.
β
β
NiccolΓ² Machiavelli
β
AUTUMNAL
Pale amber sunlight falls across
The reddening October trees,
That hardly sway before a breeze
As soft as summer: summer's loss
Seems little, dear! on days like these.
Let misty autumn be our part!
The twilight of the year is sweet:
Where shadow and the darkness meet
Our love, a twilight of the heart
Eludes a little time's deceit.
Are we not better and at home
In dreamful Autumn, we who deem
No harvest joy is worth a dream?
A little while and night shall come,
A little while, then, let us dream.
Beyond the pearled horizons lie
Winter and night: awaiting these
We garner this poor hour of ease,
Until love turn from us and die
Beneath the drear November trees.
β
β
Ernest Dowson (The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson)
β
A smile is the best way to deal with difficult situations. Even if it's a fake one. Used properly, you can fool anyone with them.
β
β
Sai
β
Betrayal and dishonor is usually an inside job. Keep it 'sucka-free', loved one!
β
β
T.F. Hodge (From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters With the Divine Presence)
β
I am talking about ultimate deceit. I am talking about unparalleled treachery. Bottomless lies. Depths that are seen that are previously unimaginable. Darkness and shattering despair that could break bones. Paranoia and horror that could stop the heart cold. All inflicted on one's self by one's self. The soul turns schizophrenic and goes hopelessly insane.
β
β
Henry Rollins (Pissing in the Gene Pool)
β
Why am I letting you comfort me?β He stared over her head. Because Iβve made sure you have no one else to turn to.
β
β
Kresley Cole (Lothaire (Immortals After Dark, #11))
β
One may outwit another, but not all the others.
β
β
François de La Rochefoucauld
β
We are oft to blame in this, -
'tis too much proved, - that with devotion's visage,
and pios action we do sugar o'er
the devil himself.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
β
I survive at the edge of friends circles.
β
β
Holly Black (Red Glove (Curse Workers, #2))
β
Trustful people are the pure at heart, as they are moved by the zeal of their own trustworthiness.
β
β
Criss Jami (Healology)
β
...I believe that you are sincere and good at heart. If you do not attain happiness, always remember that you are on the right road, and try not to leave it. Above all, avoid falsehood, every kind of falsehood, especially falseness to yourself. Watch over your own deceitfulness and look into it every hour, every minute. Avoid being scornful, both to others and to yourself. What seems to you bad within you will grow purer from the very fact of your observing it in yourself. Avoid fear, too, though fear is only the consequence of every sort of falsehood. Never be frightened at your own faint-heartedness in attaining love.
β
β
Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov)
β
Some use "ambiguity" as their native language and prefer to hide behind a veil of para-social intrigue or deceit. They readily apply a strategy of a condescendingly friendly approach. Still, as we can capture arresting signals that urge us to defuse a dire threat of besiegement, we can decipher any shrouded or manipulative intentions and steer clear of unforeseen pitfalls. ("Finally things had lost their weightiness")
β
β
Erik Pevernagie
β
Don't waste your time trying to provide people with proof of deceit, in order to keep their love, win their love or salvage their respect for you. The truth is this: If they care they will go out of their way to learn the truth. If they don't then they really don't value you as a human being. The moment you have to sell people on who you are is the moment you let yourself believe that every good thing you have ever done or accomplished was invisible to the world. And, it is not!
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
MAKING THE LIE MAKE SENSE:
When denial (his or ours) can no longer hold and we finally have to admit to ourselves that weβve been lied to, we search frantically for ways to keep it from disrupting our lives. So we rationalize. We find βgood reasonsβ to justify his lying, just as he almost always accompanies his confessions with βgood reasonsβ for his lies. He tells us he only lied becauseβ¦. We tell ourselves he only lied becauseβ¦. We make excuses for him: The lying wasnβt significant/Everybody lies/Heβs only human/I have no right to judge him.
Allowing the lies to register in our consciousness means having to make room for any number of frightening possibilities:
β’ Heβs not the man I thought he was.
β’ The relationship has spun out of control and I donβt know
what to do
β’ The relationship may be over.
Most women will do almost anything to avoid having to face these truths. Even if we yell and scream at him when we discover that heβs lied to us, once the dust settles, most of us will opt for the comforting territory of rationalization. In fact, many of us are willing to rewire our senses, short-circuit our instincts and intelligence, and accept the seductive comfort of self-delusion.
β
β
Susan Forward (When Your Lover Is a Liar: Healing the Wounds of Deception and Betrayal)
β
Whatever others may say, they say it to deceive and comfort themselves, not help you.
β
β
Dejan Stojanovic (The Sun Watches the Sun)
β
When two people love each other as we do, no one can come between them, no one," I said, amazed at the words I was uttering without preparation. "Lovers like us, because they know that nothing can destroy their love, even on the worst days, even when they are heedlessly hurting each other in the cruelest , most deceitful ways, still carry in their hearts a consolation that never abandons them." (p.191)
β
β
Orhan Pamuk (The Museum of Innocence)
β
Facts are threatening to those invested in fraud.
β
β
DaShanne Stokes
β
But as we are looking toward our future, I'm not sure it matters what we want to be but rather who we want to be. Someone honest or deceitful? Someone kind or cruel? Someone loyal or unfaithful? In any profession we can elect to be any of those things. I think this assignment is not only about what we choose to do but about who we choose to be. I choose to always be loyal to myself.
β
β
Ellen Schreiber (Royal Blood (Vampire Kisses, #6))
β
The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve. This is true even of the pious brethren who carry the gospel to foreign parts.
β
β
H.L. Mencken (Minority Report (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf))
β
Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!
β
β
Walter Scott (Marmion)
β
People would say bad things about you, because it is the only way their insignificant self can feel better than you.
β
β
Dennis E. Adonis
β
DESPISE THE FREE LUNCH JUDGMENT What is offered for free is dangerous-it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation. What has worth is worth paying for. By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit. It is also often wise to pay the full priceβthere is no cutting corners with excellence. Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.
β
β
Robert Greene (The 48 Laws of Power)
β
A liar deceives himself more than anyone, for he believes he can remain a person of good character when he cannot.
β
β
Richelle E. Goodrich (Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year)
β
A rumor is a social cancer: it is difficult to contain and it rots the brains of the masses. However, the real danger is that so many people find rumors enjoyable. That part causes the infection. And in such cases when a rumor is only partially made of truth, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where the information may have gone wrong. It is passed on and on until some brave soul questions its validity; that brave soul refuses to bite the apple and let the apple eat him. Forced to start from scratch for the sake of purity and truth, that brave soul, figuratively speaking, fully amputates the information in order to protect his personal judgment. In other words, his ignorance is to be valued more than the lie believed to be true.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
Silence is a lie that screams at the light.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
β
β
Barack Obama
β
Go back,
go back to sleep.
Yes, you are allowed.
You who have no Love in your heart,
you can go back to sleep.
The power of Love
is exclusive to us,
you can go back to sleep.
I have been burnt
by the fire of Love.
You who have no such yearning in your heart,
go back to sleep.
The path of Love,
has seventy-two folds and countless facets.
Your love and religion
is all about deceit, control and hypocrisy,
go back to sleep.
I have torn to pieces my robe of speech,
and have let go of the desire to converse.
You who are not naked yet,
you can go back to sleep.
β
β
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (Hush, Don't Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi)
β
Even if there are instances in which it can be mistook by onlookers, never fool yourself into using misunderstood genius as an excuse to be a fool.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between whatβs happening and the stories we tell ourselves about whatβs happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.
β
β
Sharon Salzberg (Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation)
β
In the deceitfulness of our hearts, we sometimes play with temptation by entertaining the thought that we can always confess and later ask forgiveness. Such thinking is exceedingly dangerous. Godβs judgement is without partiality. He never overlooks our sin. He never decides not to bother, since the sin is only a small one. No, God hates sin intensely whenever and wherever He finds it.
β
β
Jerry Bridges (The Pursuit of Holiness)
β
There is no deception on the part of the woman, where a man bewilders himself: if he deludes his own wits, I can certainly acquit the women. Whatever man allows his mind to dwell upon the imprint his imagination has foolishly taken of women, is fanning the flames within himself -- and, since the woman knows nothing about it, she is not to blame. For if a man incites himself to drown, and will not restrain himself, it is not the water's fault.
β
β
John Gower (Confessio Amantis, Volume 1)
β
The really dangerous American fascist... is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power... They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective, toward which all their deceit is directed, is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.
~quoted in the New York Times, April 9, 1944
β
β
Henry A. Wallace
β
For a moment, there is silence between us.
He takes a step toward me. βThe other nightββ
I cut him off. βI did it for the same reason that you did. To get it out of my system.β
βAnd is it?β he asks. βOut of your system?β
I look him in the face and lie. βYes.β
If he touches me, if he even takes another step toward me, my deceit will be exposed. I donβt think I can keep the longing off my face. Instead, to my relief, he gives a thin-lipped nod and departs.
From the next room, I hear the Roach call out to Cardan, to offer to teach him the trick of levitating a playing card. I hear Cardan laugh.
It occurs to me that maybe desire isnβt something overindulging helps. Maybe it is not unlike mithridatism; maybe I took a killing dose when I should have been poisoning myself slowly, one kiss at a time.
β
β
Holly Black (The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2))
β
Deceit for personal gain is one of history's most recurring crimes. Man's first step towards change would be thinking, counter-arguing, re-thinking, twisting, straightening, perfecting, then believing every original idea he intends to make public before making it public. There is always an angle from which an absolute truth may appear askew just as there is always a personal emotion, or a personal agenda, which alienates the ultimate good of mankind.
β
β
Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion.
Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.
They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.
They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.
β
β
Henry A. Wallace
β
Causing any damage or harm to one party in order to help another party is not justice, and likewise, attacking all feminine conduct [in order to warn men away from individual women who are deceitful] is contrary to the truth, just as I will show you with a hypothetical case. Let us suppose they did this intending to draw fools away from foolishness. It would be as if I attacked fire -- a very good and necessary element nevertheless -- because some people burnt themselves, or water because someone drowned. The same can be said of all good things which can be used well or used badly. But one must not attack them if fools abuse them.
β
β
Christine de Pizan (The Book of the City of Ladies)
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Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac. In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting. Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidarity to pure wind. War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it. Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. (On the manipulation of language for political ends.) We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.
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George Orwell (Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays)
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Hatred is a bitter, damaging emotion. It winds itself through the blood, infecting its host and driving it forward without any reason. Its view is jaundiced and it skews even the clearest of eye sights. Sacrifice is noble and tender. Itβs the action of a host who values others above himself. Sacrifice is bought through love and decency. It is truly heroic. Vengeance is an act of violence. It allows those who have been wronged to take back some of what was lost to them. Unlike sacrifice, it gives back to the one who practices it. Love is deceitful and sublime. In its truest form, it brings out the best in all beings. At its worst, itβs a tool used to manipulate and ruin anyone who is stupid enough to hold it. Donβt be stupid. Sacrifice is for the weak. Hatred corrupts. Love destroys. Vengeance is the gift of the strong. Move forward, not with hatred, not with love. Move forward with purpose. Take back what was stolen. Make those who laughed at your pain pay. Not with hatred, but with calm, cold rationale. Hatred is your enemy. Vengeance is your friend. Hold it close and let it loose. May the gods have mercy on those who have wronged me because I will have no mercy for them. (Xypher)
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Sherrilyn Kenyon (Dream Chaser (Dark-Hunter, #13; Dream-Hunter, #3))
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Reality Check
His lying is not contigent on who you are or what you do. His lying is not your fault. Lying is his choice and his problem, and if he makes that choice with you, he will make it with any other woman heβs with. That doesnβt mean youβre an angel and heβs the devil. It does mean that if he doesnβt like certain things about you, he has many ways to address them besides lying. If there are sexual problems between you, there are many resources available to help you. Nothing can change until you hold him responsible and accountable for lying and stop blaming yourself.
The lies we tell ourselves to keep from seeing the truth about our lovers donβt feel like lies. They feel comfortable, familiar, and true. We repeat them like a mantra and cling to them like security blankets, hoping to calm ourselves and regain our sense that the world works the way we believe it ought to.
Self-lies are false friends we look to for comfort and protectionβand for a short time they may make us feel better. But we can only keep the truth at bay for so long. Our self-lies canβt erase his lies, and as weβll see, the longer we try to pretend they can, the more we deepen the hurt.
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Susan Forward
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I remember when I saw Peter Pan when I was little. After all the other kids wanted to reenact the battles of the lost boys, pirates, and Indians, and all I could think about was the part where Peter Pan sits still while Wendy takes a sharp needle and, with concern and maybe love, sews his shadow onto his feet. And I wonder if the pain excited him as much as it excited me to watch. I hang here, the voices still bleeding in my ears. I watch my shadow, solid like a murdered body's outline, and I pray. Maybe one more slice, just one more, will sever it forever.
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J.T. LeRoy (The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things)
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Mr Churchill caught the end of one of the long ribbons from her bonnet, which were flying madly in the strong breeze. He toyed with it for a long while, then looked up into her eyes. βDo you believe in love at first sight?β he asked.
βNo, I donβt suppose I do,β Jane answered. Her heart started beating harder. That was a lie. Maybe her breath was catching in her throat because she was lying: she fell in love with him the moment she saw him, rescuing the poor store clerk. Or maybe it was because he was standing so close to her, just on the other end of her bonnet ribbon. She felt her cheeks growing warm, and tried to talk herself out of blushing. He was not standing any closer to her than when they danced together, or sat on the same bench at the pianoforte. Why should it fluster her that he was wrapping the end of her bonnet ribbon around his fingers like that?
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Jeanette Watts (My Dearest Miss Fairfax)
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Yet if women are so flighty, fickle, changeable, susceptible, and inconstant (as some clerks would have us believe), why is it that their suitors have to resort to such trickery to have their way with them? And why don't women quickly succumb to them, without the need for all this skill and ingenuity in conquering them? For there is no need to go to war for a castle that is already captured. (...)
Therefore, since it is necessary to call on such skill, ingenuity, and effort in order to seduce a woman, whether of high or humble birth, the logical conclusion to draw is that women are by no means as fickle as some men claim, or as easily influenced in their behaviour. And if anyone tells me that books are full of women like these, it is this very reply, frequently given, which causes me to complain. My response is that women did not write these books nor include the material which attacks them and their morals. Those who plead their cause in the absence of an opponent can invent to their heart's content, can pontificate without taking into account the opposite point of view and keep the best arguments for themselves, for aggressors are always quick to attack those who have no means of defence. But if women had written these books, I know full well the subject would have been handled differently. They know that they stand wrongfully accused, and that the cake has not been divided up equally, for the strongest take the lion's share, and the one who does the sharing out keeps the biggest portion for himself.
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Christine de Pizan (Der Sendbrief vom Liebesgott / The Letter of the God of Love (L'Epistre au Dieu d'Amours))
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Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color; and at the same time the concrete of all colors; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows- a colorless, all-color of atheism from which we shrink? And when we consider that other theory of the natural philosophers, that all other earthly hues β every stately or lovely emblazoning β the sweet tinges of sunset skies and woods; yea, and the gilded velvets of butterflies, and the butterfly cheeks of young girls; all these are but subtile deceits, not actually inherent in substances, but only laid on from without; so that all deified Nature absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel-house within; and when we proceed further, and consider that the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of her hues, the great principle of light, for ever remains white or colorless in itself, and if operating without medium upon matter, would touch all objects, even tulips and roses, with its own blank tinge β pondering all this, the palsied universe lies before us a leper; and like wilful travellers in Lapland, who refuse to wear colored and coloring glasses upon their eyes, so the wretched infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental white shroud that wraps all the prospect around him. And of all these things the Albino whale was the symbol. Wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?
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Herman Melville (Moby-Dick or, The Whale)