“
Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.
”
”
Arthur Conan Doyle (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #3))
“
In order to get the things I want, it helps me to pretend I’m a figure in a daytime drama, a schemer. Soap opera characters make emphatic pronouncements. They ball up their fists and state their goals out loud. ‘I will destroy Buchanan Enterprises,’ they say. ‘Phoebe Wallingford will pay for what she’s done to our family.’ Walking home with the back half of the twelve-foot ladder, I turned to look in the direction of Hugh’s loft. ‘You will be mine,’ I commanded.
”
”
David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day)
“
The Neverseen may think themselves brilliant schemers, full of plans no one would ever suspect.
But when it came to game-changing secrets, the Black Swan would always be the best.
”
”
Shannon Messenger (Nightfall (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #6))
“
A boy is a man in miniature, and though he may sometimes exhibit notable virtue, as well as characteristics that seem to be charming because they are childlike, he is also a schemer, self-seeker, traitor, Judas, crook, and villain - in short, a man.
”
”
Robertson Davies (The Deptford Trilogy)
“
She was a dreamer and a schemer & one didnt dream and scheme without hope.
”
”
Loretta Chase (Silk Is for Seduction (The Dressmakers, #1))
“
He could be the witch. He could be the villain. He could be the trickster, the schemer, the self-serving God of Chaos, prove the mythology books right. Prove them all right in what they had all thought, that he was rotten from the start. He would serve no man but himself, no heart but his own. That would be his choice. He could be the witch. Be the witch, and know everything.
”
”
Mackenzi Lee (Loki: Where Mischief Lies)
“
- We're winning!
- Who is 'we', mon Prince?
- Not a word! I will tell you tomorrow.
”
”
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
“
Not every man in the Senate is some kind of masterful schemer, exerting all his energies to acquire more power and influence at the expense of all others.” “No,” Isana agreed. “Some of them are incompetent schemers.
”
”
Jim Butcher (First Lord's Fury (Codex Alera, #6))
“
The schemers in this world eventually plot nothing but their own downfall.
”
”
Kaneda Chaplin
“
— Who dares, in front of Love, to mention Hell?
Curbed forever be that useless dreamer
Who first imagined, in his brutish mind,
Of sheer futility the fatuous schemer,
Honour with Love could ever be combined.
He who in mystic union would enmesh
Shadow with warmth, and daytime with the night,
Will never warm his paralytic flesh
At the red sun of amorous delight.
Go, if you wish, and seek some boorish lover:
Offer your virgin heart to his crude hold,
Full of remorse and horror you'll recover,
And bring me your scarred breast to be consoled...
Down here, a soul can only serve one master.
(Damned Women)
”
”
Charles Baudelaire (Les Fleurs du Mal)
“
Hoosiers aren't quitters. California people are quitters. No offense. It's just you've got restlessness in your blood." "I don't," she said, but he went on.
"Your people came here looking for something better. Gold, fame, citrus. Mirage. They were feckless, yeah? Schemers. That's why no one wants them now. Mojavs.
”
”
Claire Vaye Watkins (Gold Fame Citrus)
“
THE FIVE LAWS OF GOLD I. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earngs to create an estate for his future and that of his family. II. Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field. III. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling. IV. Gold slippeth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep. V. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.
”
”
George S. Clason (The Richest Man in Babylon)
“
hoe weemoedig hij soms ook mocht kijken naar zulke echtparen in de vallende schemering of op zondagmiddagen, de week had nog meer uren en hun leven was niets voor hem, als hij zijn melancholie weer de baas was
”
”
Philip Roth (Everyman)
“
Be blessed with an honest character, true heart.
Wise, dignified people who value honesty stir away from dishonest, corrupt schemers.
Great reward is not on titles, position, appearances, status or richness but the peace of one's heart and service to humanity.
Peace of one's heart can mean far and away and not falling into any Machiavellian trap.
”
”
Angelica Hopes
“
And they schemed but God also schemed and God is the Best of Schemers.
”
”
Anonymous (The Quran: A Simple English Translation (Goodword))
“
Too much scheming can spell the end of a schemer. All too often, a schemer forgets that he, too, may fall victim to the schemes of another.
”
”
Dojyomaru (How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Volume 2)
“
Please do not think that I am accusing socialists of insincerity or that I wish to hold them up to scorn either as bad democrats or as unprincipled schemers and opportunists. I fully believe, in spite of the childish Machiavellism in which some of their prophets indulge, that fundamentally most of them always have been as sincere in their professions as any other men. Besides, I do not believe in insincerity in social strife, for people always come to think what they want to think and what they incessantly profess. As regards democracy, socialist parties are presumably no more opportunists than are any others; they simply espouse democracy if, as, and when it serves their ideals and interests and not otherwise. Lest readers should be shocked and think so immoral a view worthy only of the most callous of political practitioners, ...
”
”
Joseph A. Schumpeter (Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy)
“
When Ronan was young and didn’t know any better, he thought everyone was like him. He made rules for humanity based upon observation, his idea of the truth only as broad as his world was. Everyone must sleep and eat. Everyone has hands, feet. Everyone’s skin is sensitive; no one’s hair is. Everyone whispers to hide and shouts to be heard. Everyone has pale skin and blue eyes, every man has long dark hair, every woman has long golden hair. Every child knows the stories of Irish heroes, every mother knows songs about weaver women and lonely boatmen. Every house is surrounded by secret fields and ancient barns, every pasture is watched by blue mountains, every narrow drive leads to a hidden world. Everyone sometimes wakes with their dreams still gripped in their hands. Then he crept out of childhood, and suddenly the uniqueness of experience unveiled itself. Not all fathers are wild, charming schemers, wiry, far-eyed gods; and not all mothers are dulcet, soft-spoken friends, patient as buds in spring. There are people who don’t care about cars and there are people who like to live in cities. Some families do not have older and younger brothers; some families don’t have brothers at all. Most men do not go to Mass every Sunday and most men do not fall in love with other men. And no one brings dreams to life. No one brings dreams to life. No one brings dreams to life.
”
”
Maggie Stiefvater (Call Down the Hawk (Dreamer Trilogy, #1))
“
We want our way like David with Bathsheba
We are dreamers we are schemers like Jacob the deceiver
But You meet us at the river and You show us a good fight
Then You bless us and You name us and You make morning of our night
”
”
Carolyn Arends
“
Don't ever accuse anyone of being full of pride, undignified and unprofessional when simply they are wise to move away from dishonest schemers.
Dishonesty comprise too of layers of lies simply casted for impressive appearances. There are times too that corrupt hearts have their own confused, modified, self-affirming, pro-self interest business inclined definitions of "professionalism, integrity, dignity and pride.
”
”
Angelica Hopes
“
Ulrich replied by asking him whether he really believed that anything would come of this campaign.
"No doubt about it," Arnheim said, "great events are always the expression of a general situation." The mere fact that a meeting such as this had been possible anywhere was proof of its profound necessity.
And yet discrimination in such matters seems difficult, Ulrich said. Suppose, for instance, that the composer of the latest worldwide musical hit happened to be a political schemer and managed to become president of the world--which was certainly conceivable, given his enormous popularity--would this be a leap forward in history or an expression of the cultural situation?
"That's quite impossible!" Arnheim said seriously. "Such a composer couldn't possibly be either a schemer or a politician--otherwise, his genius for musical comedy would be inexplicable, and nothing absurd happens in world history."
"But so much that's absurd happens in the world, surely?"
"In world history, never!
”
”
Robert Musil (The Man Without Qualities: Volume I)
“
Love-talker. Schemer.
”
”
Holly Black (The Stolen Heir (The Stolen Heir Duology, #1))
“
In this world there are DREAMERS WHO ONLY DREAM.
THERE ARE DREAMERS WHO LIVE THEIR DREAM.
AND, THERE ARE SCHEMERS WHO STEAL THE INNOCENT ONES' DREAMS.
”
”
Cherie (Long Island Gold)
“
(...) en hun gedachten nemen nu de zachte en onbestemde kleuren van de schemering aan.
”
”
Charles Baudelaire
“
The winners are the schemers and the ruthless who take what they want, not the suckers standing around hoping for an even break.
”
”
Richard Kadrey (The Kill Society (Sandman Slim, #9))
“
Mystique is ten times better than publicity; it’s much better to be thought of as the great and powerful Oz than to be revealed as merely another schemer behind a curtain.
”
”
Michael Ovitz (Who Is Michael Ovitz?)
“
I would never believe it of you, my boy, regardless of the schemers your mother and sister turned out to be. You may not be the most clever boy, nor the most prudent, nor the most gentlemanlike, nor..."
Edward cleared his throat.
"Right! But you have a good heart, and I have every hope that with the proper education and mentoring you will be credit to the family yet.
”
”
Julie Klassen (The Silent Governess)
“
No. I am Empress. I learned under Plotina. I learned under her predecessor Domitia. You know what empresses are, Lucius? We are plotters. We are schemers. We are survivors.” She smiled. “And sometimes, we are killers.
”
”
Kate Quinn (Lady of the Eternal City (The Empress of Rome Book 4))
“
She had been with her share of schemers and men who were forever building castles in the sky. All of those dreams made out of clouds; when it rained - and it always did - they were left with nothing but the soggy shirts on their backs.
”
”
Ayana Mathis (The Twelve Tribes of Hattie)
“
I wanted power so badly that I had convinced myself I already had too much of it, that I was an evil schemer who might destroy everyone around me through the poison seeping out of my pores. I was appalled by my own majesty. I wanted someone to betray.
”
”
Edmund White (A Boy's Own Story (The Edmund Trilogy, #1))
“
What can you possibly say about Rome?
That it's eternal? That all roads lead to it? That it wasn't built in a day? That when there you should do as the locals do?
Please.
For millennia, Rome has embodied and repelled every cliché, description, and act of comprehension or explanation applied to it.
As a city, it has been built and destroyed and rebuilt by - and has celebrated and signified and outlasted - caesars and barbarians and popes and Fascists and prophets and artists and pilgrims and schemers and migrants and lovers and fools.
”
”
Shawn Levy (Dolce Vita Confidential: Fellini, Loren, Pucci, Paparazzi, and the Swinging High Life of 1950s Rome)
“
I opened my doors to any of the Undead who would wipe their boots before entering. It was like the old days in Venice, with Bianca’s palazzo open to all ladies and gentlemen, indeed, to all artists, poets, dreamers and schemers who dared to present themselves, had come again.
”
”
Anne Rice (The Vampire Armand (The Vampire Chronicles, #6))
“
Of all the noble, vaunted heroes we hear about, at least half were contemptible liars and schemers who used their influence to claim achievements and write the histories, and managed to succeed. Of those who really did give everything for truth and justice, two-thirds choked to death horribly and quietly in the dust of history, forgotten by everyone, and the remaining one-third had their reputations smeared into eternal infamy, just like Song Cheng. Only a tiny percentage were remembered as they were by history, less than the exposed corner of the iceberg.
”
”
Liu Cixin (To Hold Up the Sky)
“
How is it that in the Bible it is the Devil and his vessel the Antichrist that are repeatedly referred to as the schemers, liars and the deceivers; but in the Qur’an, it is Allah who is the greatest of all deceivers? Satan knows full well who he is, and as he was inspiring the Qur’an, he couldn’t help but brag a little.
”
”
Walid Shoebat (God's War on Terror: Islam, Prophecy and the Bible)
“
Go cons a piece of cake onto your mouth.
”
”
Daniel P. Friedman (The Little Schemer)
“
He had always been a middle-of-the-road sort. He had never submitted word for word to anyone's command, but neither had he passionately rebelled against anyone's advice. Depending upon the interpretation, this was the posture of a schemer or the strategy of a born vacillator. If he himself had been confronted with either of these charges, he could not have avoided wondering if they might not be true. But in large part, this was to be attributed neither to artifice nor to vacillation but rather to the flexibility of his vision, which allowed him to look in both directions at once. To this day, it was precisely this capacity that had always dampened his determination to advance singlemindedly toward a particular goal. It was not unusual for him to stand paralyzed in the midst of a situation. His posture of upholding the status quo was not the result of poverty of thought, but the product of lucid judgment; but he had never understood this truth about himself until he acted upon his beliefs with inviolable courage. The situation with Michiyo was precisely a case in point.
”
”
Natsume Sōseki (And Then)
“
For the guard with the scar over her heart: I’ve been watching you. You’re not like the other guards — the bowing, scraping, mindlessly loyal lizards who live for your queen. You have your own thoughts, don’t you? You’re smarter than the average SandWing. And I think I know your secret. Let’s talk about it. Third cell down, the one with two NightWings in it. I’m the one who doesn’t snore. I HAVE NO INTEREST IN DISCUSSING ANYTHING WITH A NIGHTWING PRISONER. WHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO LET YOU HAVE PAPER AND INK? You should be interested. You’re going to need allies for what you’re planning … and when I get out of here, I’m going to be a very useful ally indeed. AMUSING ASSUMPTIONS. MY QUEEN BELIEVES YOU’RE GOING TO BE IN HERE FOR A LONG, LONG TIME. True … but she also believes she’s going to be queen for a long, long time … doesn’t she. An interesting silence after my last note. Perhaps it would reassure you to know I set your notes on fire as soon as I’ve read them. You can tell me anything, my new, venomous-tailed friend. Believe me, Night-Wings are exceptionally skilled at keeping secrets. WE ARE NOT FRIENDS. I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT YOU, OTHER THAN WHAT IT SAYS IN YOUR PRISONER FILE. FIERCETEETH: TRAITOR. KIDNAPPER. RINGLEADER OF ASSASSINATION PLOT. TO BE HELD INDEFINITELY WITH FELLOW TRAITOR STRONGWINGS, ON BEHALF OF THE NIGHTWING QUEEN. OH, YES, CERTAINLY SOUNDS LIKE A DRAGON ANYONE CAN TRUST. She’s not my queen. You can’t be a traitor to someone who shouldn’t be ruling over you in the first place. Which might be a thought you’ve had lately yourself, isn’t it? I know some things about you, even without a file. Saguaro: Prison guard. Schemer. Connected to great secret plans. We’re not so different, you and I. Particularly when it comes to trustworthiness. Just think, if my alleged “assassination plot” had worked, the NightWings would have a different queen right now. Perhaps it would even be me. Well, if at first you don’t succeed … I could tell you my story, if you get me more paper to write on. Or you could stop by one midnight and listen to it instead. But I’ve noticed you don’t like spending too much time in the dungeon. Is it the tip-tap of little scorpion claws scrabbling everywhere? The stench rising from the holes in the floor? The gibbering mad SandWing a few cages down who never shuts up, all night long? (What is her story? Has she really been here since the rule of Queen Oasis?) Or is it that you can too easily picture yourself behind these bars … and you know how close you are to joining us? ALL RIGHT, NIGHTWING, HERE’S A BLANK SCROLL. GO AHEAD AND TRY TO CONVINCE ME THAT YOU’RE A DRAGON WHO EVEN DESERVES TO LIVE, LET ALONE ONE I SHOULD WASTE MY TIME ON. I DO ENJOY BEING AMUSED.
”
”
Tui T. Sutherland (Escaping Peril (Wings of Fire, #8))
“
The world's greatest computer is the brain.
The world's greatest engine is the heart.
The world's greatest generator is the soul.
The world's greatest television is the mind.
The world's greatest radio is the tongue.
The world's greatest camera is the eye.
The world's greatest ladder is faith.
The world's greatest hammer is courage.
The world's greatest sword is accuracy.
The world's greatest photographer is sight.
The world's greatest knife is fate.
The world's greatest spear is intelligence.
The world's greatest submerine is a fish.
The world's greatest aeroplane is a bird.
The world's greatest jet is a fly.
The world's greatest bicycle is a camel.
The world's greatest motorbike is a horse.
The world's greatest train is a centipede.
The world's greatest sniper is a cobra.
The world's greatest schemer is a fox.
The world's greatest builder is an ant.
The world's greatest tailor is a spider.
The world's greatest assassin is a wolf.
The world's greatest ruler is a lion.
The world's greatest judge is karma.
The world's greatest preacher is nature.
The world's greatest philosopher is truth.
The world's greatest mirror is reality.
The world's greatest curtain is darkness.
The world's greatest author is destiny.
”
”
Matshona Dhliwayo
“
James J. Strang, innocent target of religious persecution—like all his personae, this one proved to be a mask. Yet it was exactly those masks—those endless layers of ambiguity—that gave the man his charisma,
”
”
Miles Harvey (The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch)
“
Don't ever accuse anyone of being full of pride, undignified and unprofessional when simply they are wise to move away from dishonest schemers.
Dishonesty comprise too of layers of lies simply casted for impressive appearances. There are times too that corrupt hearts have their own confused, modified, self-affirming, pro-self interest business inclined definition of "professional, integrity, dignified and pride.
”
”
Angelica Hopes
“
The Misunderstood Social Butterfly Like manipulative mothers, scheming co-workers act nice toward their intended target and present themselves as a victim. These schemers make themselves seem misunderstood and victimized to gain their target’s trust. The unwitting target then makes it his or her job to cover for the “victim,” making sure that the “victim” is protected from others. This forms an exclusive bond between the two parties, with the manipulator effectively cutting off the target’s contact with other employees by painting them in a bad light. The target then becomes the manipulator’s personal pep squad, leaving the employee emotionally and mentally drained. Typically, the person being manipulated in this type of relationship at work is someone who is hard working, trusting, and unfortunately, often times easy prey to a manipulator. The manipulator sees the victim as the person who is always working late and the person who always “tries to do the right thing”. The manipulator, conversely, often times is the one leaving early, skating by day-to-day, but occasionally has enough “golden opportunities” with the boss to make themselves the “favored employees”. Nearly always a gregarious and outgoing person, these manipulative people can be true terrors to those whom they manipulate.
”
”
Sarah Goldberg (Manipulative People: Learn To Turn The Tables & Manipulate The Manipulator!)
“
15. He has opened a pit, etc. This is the wonderful wisdom of God, that He does not punish the ungodly except with their own stratagems, He mocks them with their own mockeries, He pierces them with their own javelins, as David did with Goliath and Christ did with the devil. Thus the Jews had prepared every evil for Christ, and behold, it came upon themselves. And always God observes the rule: “No law is fairer than that the schemers of destruction perish by their own device.”8 And blessed Augustine says, “You have commanded,9 O Lord, and so it is done, that every disordered spirit be its self-punishment.”10 And in this passage (v. 16) we read: His mischief shall be turned on his own head. This is what happened to Saul, Absalom, and many others who harmed themselves when they wanted to harm others, and the fact that Saul fell on his own sword, and his armor bearer after him, is an illustration of this.
”
”
Martin Luther (Luther's Works, Vol. 10: Lectures on Psalms)
“
The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations—that's the man! But so aloof is he from general suspicion, so immune from criticism, so admirable in his management and self-effacement, that for those very words that you have uttered he could hale you to a court and emerge with your year's pension as a solatium for his wounded character.
”
”
Arthur Conan Doyle (The Valley of Fear (Sherlock Holmes, #7))
“
Remember how those who bent on denying the truth plotted against you to imprison you or kill you or expel you: they schemed—but God also schemed. God is the best of schemers. 31 Whenever Our revelations are recited to them, they say, ‘We have heard them. If we wished, we could produce the like. They are nothing but the fables of the ancients.’ 32 They also said, ‘God, if this really is the truth from You, then rain down upon us stones from heaven, or send us some other painful punishment.’ 33 But God would not punish them while you [Prophet] were in their midst, nor would He punish them so long as they sought forgiveness. 34 Yet why should God not punish them when they debar people from the Sacred Mosque, although they are not its guardians? Its rightful guardians are those who fear God, though most of them do not realize it. 35 Their prayers at the Sacred House are nothing but whistling and clapping of hands. ‘So taste the punishment because of your denial.’ 36 Those who are bent on denying the truth are spending their wealth in debarring others from the path of God. They will continue to spend it in this way till, in the end, this spending will become a source of intense regret for them, and then they will be overcome. And those who denied the truth will be gathered together in Hell. 37 So that God may separate the bad from the good, He will heap the wicked one upon another and then cast them into Hell. These will surely be the losers. 38 Tell those who are bent on denying the truth that if they desist, their past shall be forgiven, but if they persist in sin, they have an example in the fate of those who went before.b 39 Fight them until there is no more [religious] persecution,c and religion belongs wholly to God: if they desist, then surely God is watchful of what they do, 40 but if they turn away, know that God is your Protector; the Best of Protectors and the Best of Helpers!
”
”
Anonymous (The Quran: A Simple English Translation (Goodword))
“
Toen zette de kleine Johannes zich op den duinrand en staarde - staarde in lang, roerloos zwijgen - totdat het hem was, alsof hij ging sterven, alsof de groote, gouden deuren van het heelal zich statig ontsloten en zijn kleine ziel het eerste licht der oneindigheid tegenzweefde.
En totdat de tranen, die in zijn wijd geopende oogen welden, de schoone zon omfloersten en de pracht van hemel en aarde deden wegdeinzen in een duistere, trillende schemering ...
‘Zoo moet gij bidden!’ zeide toen Windekind.
”
”
Frederik van Eeden (De kleine Johannes)
“
Most of Robert’s relatives were put off by Kitty. Plain-spoken Jackie Oppenheimer always thought she was “a bitch” and resented the way she thought Kitty cut Robert off from his friends. Decades later she vented her animosity: “She could not stand sharing Robert with anyone,” recalled Jackie. “Kitty was a schemer. If Kitty wanted anything, she would always get it. . . . She was a phony. All her political convictions were phony, all her ideas were borrowed. Honestly, she’s one of the few really evil people I’ve known in my life.
”
”
Kai Bird (American Prometheus)
“
Rather, an authentic drama was afoot reminiscent of a play by Aeschylus or Shakespeare in which powerful schemers end up caught in a trap of their own making. In the real-life drama I was witnessing, Summers’s sacred rule of insiders kicked in the moment they recognized their powerlessness. The hatches were battened down, official denial prevailed, and the consequences of the tragic impasse they’d created were left to unfold on autopilot, imprisoning them yet further in a situation they detested for weakening their hold over events.
”
”
Yanis Varoufakis (Adults in the Room: My Battle with Europe's Deep Establishment)
“
Franco Moretti in The Way of the World, his brilliant discussion of the European bildungsroman, or novel of growing-up, distinguishes the British novel from the continental European one for its greater emphasis on the child as hero or heroine. This goes, he says, with a plot that turns on the dangers posed by fairy-tale villains and schemers, trying to dispossess the child of its rightful place and inheritance—as opposed to the novel of growing-up, becoming adult, making moral errors (Stendhal, Goethe, and in Britain, Middlemarch, which Virginia Woolf called the only novel written for grown-ups).
”
”
Lewis Carroll (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass)
“
Betty, whom I recently discovered sorting through the contents of my suitcase, turns on the overhead light in my room, wrinkles her brow, and peers in like a camp counselor on an inspection tour, as if she suspects I might be entertaining someone who has paddled in from across the lake. She must keep an eye out. I am a schemer. There are things going on behind her back, plans afoot, she fears. She has no intention of cooperating with any of them. When the phone rings, she listens to every word, not sure if she can trust me with her independence. I don’t blame her. I am an unlikely guardian. A month ago I thought the Medicare doughnut hole was a breakfast special for seniors. I am a care inflictor. She’s
”
”
George Hodgman (Bettyville: A Memoir)
“
ago: THE FIVE LAWS OF GOLD 1. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family. 2. Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field. 3. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling. 4. Gold slippeth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep. 5. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.
”
”
George S. Clason (The Richest Man in Babylon: 9789387669369 (GP Self-Help Collection Book 1))
“
There are subtler ways of killing. Call it death by statistics. Today, white man lets his statistics do the killing for him. Indian reservations in South Dakota have the highest rates of poverty and unemployment and the highest rates of infant mortality and teenage suicide, along with the lowest standard of living and the lowest life expectancy — barely forty years! — in the country. Those statistics amount to genocide.
Genocide also disguises itself in the form of poor health facilities and wretched housing and inadequate schooling and rampant corruption. Our remaining lands, eyed by a thousand local schemers only too eager to stir up trouble and division on the reservation, continue to be sold off acre by acre to pay off tribal and individual debts. No square inch of our ever-shrinking territory seems beyond the greedy designs of those who would drive us into nonexistence.
”
”
Leonard Peltier (Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance)
“
Garrett regarded the scene with amazement. "It looks like a Saturday-night market."
"It's to celebrate the new underground London Ironstone line. The railway owner, Tom Severin, is paying out of his own pocket for fairs and concerts across the city."
"Mr. Severin my be taking credit for the celebrations," Garrett said wryly, "but I can assure you, not a shilling of it has come from his own pocket."
Ransom's gaze flashed to her. "You know Severin?"
"I'm acquainted with him," she said. "He's a friend of Mr. Winterborne's."
"But not yours?"
"I would call him a friendly acquaintance." A ripple of delight ran through her as she saw the notch between his brows. Was it possible he was jealous? "Mr. Severin is a schemer," she said. "An opportunist. He contrives everything for his own advantage, even at the expense of his friends."
"A businessman, then," Ransom said flatly.
Garrett laughed. "He certainly is that.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Hello Stranger (The Ravenels, #4))
“
APRIL 1 PREPARE TO CONFRONT THE ENEMY’S TACTICS MY CHILD, DO not be ignorant of the devil’s tactics. The devil is a schemer, and he sets traps or snares for My children. But I will give you the power to overcome all of his schemes. Fix your eyes upon Me, for I am your Sovereign Lord. Do not be deceived by Satan’s lies. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Be aware that in these times there are some who will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Follow closely after My Word, for everything I created is good, and you should receive it with thanksgiving. EPHESIANS 6:10–12; PSALM 140:8–10; 1 TIMOTHY 4:1–4 Prayer Declaration Lord, arise in me and scatter your enemies. Cause my evil foes to flee before You. As wax melts before the fire, may Satan’s evil schemes perish before You. You have given me Your shield of victory, and Your right hand sustains me. I pursued my enemies and overtook them. I did not turn back till they were destroyed. You are the God who avenges me and saves me from my enemies.
”
”
John Eckhardt (Daily Declarations for Spiritual Warfare: Biblical Principles to Defeat the Devil)
“
As Angela Davis has reminded us so poignantly in her discussion of democracy under capitalism: “We know that there is a glaring incongruity between democracy and the capitalist economy which is the source of our ills. Regardless of all rhetoric to the contrary, the people are not the ultimate matrix of the laws and the system which govern them—certainly not black people and other nationally oppressed people, but not even the mass of whites. The people do not exercise decisive control over the determining factors of their lives.” There is reason to question, moreover, whether capitalist democracy favors or fuels highly reprehensible political activities, if it be colonialism and neocolonialism, the rise to power of certain forms of fascism, racial segregation and sexist discrimination (de jure or de facto), the upsurge of what Wolin calls inverted totalitarianism, or the rise of political schemers like George W. Bush and Silvio Berlusconi. It must be noted that the history of institutionalized democracy, as we know it, instead of being the history of a simple ascension toward the summum bonum of politics in general, is in fact punctuated by such practices.
”
”
Gabriel Rockhill (Counter-History of the Present: Untimely Interrogations into Globalization, Technology, Democracy)
“
Look at what I wrote at the beginning of this memoir. Have I caught anything at all of the extraordinary night when Paul Dempster was born? I am pretty sure that my little sketch of Percy Boyd Staunton is accurate, but what about myself? I have always sneered at autobiographies and memoirs in which the writer appears at the beginning as a charming, knowing little fellow, possessed of insights and perceptions beyond his years, yet offering these with false naivete to the reader, as though to say, 'What a little wonder I was, but All Boy.' Have the writers any notion or true collection of what a boy is?
I have and I have reinforced it by forty-five years of teaching boys. A boy is a man in miniature, and though he may sometimes exhibit notable virtue, as well as characteristics that seem to be charming because they are childlike, he is also schemer, self-seeker, traitor, Judas, crook, and villain - in short, a man. Oh these autobiographies in which the writer postures and simpers as a David Copperfield or a Huck Finn! False, false as harlots' oaths!
Can I write truly of my boyhood? Or will that disgusting self-love which so often attaches itself to a man's idea of his youth creep in and falsify the story? I can but try. And to begin I must give you some notion of the village in which Percy Boyd Staunton and Paul Dempster and I were born.
”
”
Robertson Davies (Fifth Business (The Deptford Trilogy, #1))
“
It is rather like arguing with an Irishman,” wrote Michael Hadow of his many conversations with Dayan. “He enjoys knocking down ideas just for the sake of argument and one will find him arguing in completely opposite directions on consecutive days.” Indeed, Dayan was a classic man of contradictions: famed as a warrior, he professed deep respect for the Arabs, including those who attacked his village, Nahalal, in the early 1930s, and who once beat him and left him for dead. A poet, a writer of children’s stories, he admitted publicly that he regretted having children, and was a renowned philanderer as well. A lover of the land who made a hobby of plundering it, he had amassed a huge personal collection of antiquities. A stickler for military discipline, he was prone to show contempt for the law. As one former classmate remembered, “He was a liar, a braggart, a schemer, and a prima donna—and in spite of that, the object of deep admiration.” Equally contrasting were the opinions about him. Devotees such as Meir Amit found him “original, daring, substantive, focused,” a commander who “radiated authority and leadership [with] … outstanding instincts that always hit the mark.” But many others, among them Gideon Rafael, saw another side of him: “Rocking the boat is his favorite tactic, not to overturn it, but to sway it sufficiently for the helmsman to lose his grip or for some of its unwanted passengers to fall overboard.” In private, Eshkol referred to Dayan as Abu Jildi, a scurrilous one-eyed Arab bandit.
”
”
Michael B. Oren (Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East)
“
He stared at her in insolent silence, unable to believe the alluring, impulsive girl he remembered had become this coolly aloof, self-possessed young woman. Even with her dusty clothes and the smear of dirt on her cheek, Elizabeth Cameron was strikingly beautiful, but she’d changed so much that-except for the eyes-he scarcely recognized her. One thing hadn’t changed: She was still a schemer and a liar.
Straightening abruptly from his stance in the doorway, Ian walked forward. “I’ve had enough of this charade, Miss Cameron. No one invited you here, and you damn well know it.”
Blinded with wrath and humiliation, Elizabeth groped in her reticule and snatched out the handwritten letter her uncle had received inviting Elizabeth to join Ian there. Marching up to him, she slapped the invitation against his chest. Instinctively he caught it but didn’t open it.
“Explain that,” she commanded, backing away and then waiting.
“Another note, I’ll wager,” he drawled sarcastically, thinking of the night he’d gone to the greenhouse to meet her and recalling what a fool he’d been about her.
Elizabeth stood beside the table, determined to have the satisfaction of hearing his explanation before she left-not that anything he said could make her stay. When he showed no sign of opening it, she turned furiously to Jake, who was sorely disappointed that Ian was deliberately chasing off two females who could surely be persuaded to do the cooking if they stayed. “Make him read it aloud!” she ordered the startled Jake.
“Now, Ian,” Jake said, thinking of his empty stomach and the bleak future that lay ahead for it if the ladies went away, “why don’t you jes’ read that there little note, like the lady asked?”
When Ian Thornton ignored the older man’s suggestion, Elizabeth lost control of her temper. Without thinking what she was actually doing, she reached out and snatched the pistol off the table, primed it, cocked it, and leveled it at Ian Thornton’s broad chest. “Read that note!”
Jake, whose concern was still on his stomach, held up his hands as if the gun were pointed at him. “Ian, it could be a misunderstanding, you know, and it’s not nice to be rude to these ladies. Why don’t you read it, and then we’ll all sit down and have a nice”-he inclined his head meaningfully to the sack of provisions on the table-“supper.”
“I don’t need to read it,” Ian snapped. “The last time I read a note from Lady Cameron I met her in a greenhouse and got shot in the arm for my trouble.”
“Are you implying I invited you into that greenhouse?” Elizabeth scoffed furiously.
With an impatient sigh Ian said, “Since you’re obviously determined to enact a Cheltenham tragedy, let’s get it over with before you’re on your way.”
“Do you deny you sent me a note?” she snapped.
“Of course I deny it!”
“Then what were you doing in the greenhouse?” she shot back at him.
“I came in response to that nearly illegible note you sent me,” he said in a bored, insulting drawl. “May I suggest that in future you devote less of your time to theatrics and some of it to improving your handwriting?” His gaze shifted to the pistol. “Put the gun down before you hurt yourself.
”
”
Judith McNaught (Almost Heaven (Sequels, #3))
“
Vonkenregens spatten van de blokken op de wapperende handen
bij het flakkerende vuur dat tegen oostenwind in woedt
't is daar het noorden, ander weer, een ander uur
geen plaats daar voor kleine zorgen
geen tijd voor schijnheiligheid
harde dagelijkse strijd verspert de blik op morgen
barre eenzaamheid
de hardste mannen jagen buiten in hun vacht in weer en wind
en bij het licht van zuster maan
oude buren werden rovers
je moet er achteraan
het is daar God en het bestaan
in vormeloze hutten waar hulpeloze vaders babydochters verwelkomen
en waar vrouwen zonen baren, zonder dokter, zonder morren
men ontvangt daar nooit bezoek of 't is een team van de VN
haast onmiddellijk gevolgd door een ploeg van CNN
het is daar een ander uur in de historie
en het leven meestal niet van lange duur
waar mensen wonen
Maar in de schemer sidderen de warme handen
in de schemer de verliefde jonge blik
in de schemer tast de tong op jonge tanden
in het schemerlicht
Meer naar het zuiden heersen hitte en het zand van de woestijn
een oude vorst van kwade faam
het is daar droog en heet, elk voorwerp heeft nog steeds zijn oude naam
de kookpot en de kussens (die soms zetel zijn soms bed), een fles cola, de tv
stromend water is er niet en striemend brandt de hete zon
want waar kwamen ze vandaan
van een land meer naar het noorden dat door oorlog werd geteisterd
en door honger werd geveld
land waarvan de naam heet opwelt in de tranen voor degenen die gedood zijn
of in de hoge golven zijn verdwenen
naam die opwelt in de tranen van degenen die het haalden
over heel de ruige zee tot aan dit droge hete land
waar het welkom minder warm was dan ze hadden mogen hopen
na vele dagen varen en vele dagen lopen - p. 91+92 / Code (album)
”
”
Thé Lau (Open: De teksten 1979-2014)
“
Hymn to Mercury : Continued
71.
Sudden he changed his plan, and with strange skill
Subdued the strong Latonian, by the might
Of winning music, to his mightier will;
His left hand held the lyre, and in his right
The plectrum struck the chords—unconquerable
Up from beneath his hand in circling flight
The gathering music rose—and sweet as Love
The penetrating notes did live and move
72.
Within the heart of great Apollo—he
Listened with all his soul, and laughed for pleasure.
Close to his side stood harping fearlessly
The unabashed boy; and to the measure
Of the sweet lyre, there followed loud and free
His joyous voice; for he unlocked the treasure
Of his deep song, illustrating the birth
Of the bright Gods, and the dark desert Earth:
73.
And how to the Immortals every one
A portion was assigned of all that is;
But chief Mnemosyne did Maia's son
Clothe in the light of his loud melodies;—
And, as each God was born or had begun,
He in their order due and fit degrees
Sung of his birth and being—and did move
Apollo to unutterable love.
74.
These words were winged with his swift delight:
'You heifer-stealing schemer, well do you
Deserve that fifty oxen should requite
Such minstrelsies as I have heard even now.
Comrade of feasts, little contriving wight,
One of your secrets I would gladly know,
Whether the glorious power you now show forth
Was folded up within you at your birth,
75.
'Or whether mortal taught or God inspired
The power of unpremeditated song?
Many divinest sounds have I admired,
The Olympian Gods and mortal men among;
But such a strain of wondrous, strange, untired,
And soul-awakening music, sweet and strong,
Yet did I never hear except from thee,
Offspring of May, impostor Mercury!
76.
'What Muse, what skill, what unimagined use,
What exercise of subtlest art, has given
Thy songs such power?—for those who hear may choose
From three, the choicest of the gifts of Heaven,
Delight, and love, and sleep,—sweet sleep, whose dews
Are sweeter than the balmy tears of even:—
And I, who speak this praise, am that Apollo
Whom the Olympian Muses ever follow:
77.
'And their delight is dance, and the blithe noise
Of song and overflowing poesy;
And sweet, even as desire, the liquid voice
Of pipes, that fills the clear air thrillingly;
But never did my inmost soul rejoice
In this dear work of youthful revelry
As now. I wonder at thee, son of Jove;
Thy harpings and thy song are soft as love.
78.
'Now since thou hast, although so very small,
Science of arts so glorious, thus I swear,—
And let this cornel javelin, keen and tall,
Witness between us what I promise here,—
That I will lead thee to the Olympian Hall,
Honoured and mighty, with thy mother dear,
And many glorious gifts in joy will give thee,
And even at the end will ne'er deceive thee.'
79.
To whom thus Mercury with prudent speech:—
'Wisely hast thou inquired of my skill:
I envy thee no thing I know to teach
Even this day:—for both in word and will
I would be gentle with thee; thou canst reach
All things in thy wise spirit, and thy sill
Is highest in Heaven among the sons of Jove,
Who loves thee in the fulness of his love.
80.
'The Counsellor Supreme has given to thee
Divinest gifts, out of the amplitude
Of his profuse exhaustless treasury;
By thee, 'tis said, the depths are understood
Of his far voice; by thee the mystery
Of all oracular fates,—and the dread mood
Of the diviner is breathed up; even I—
A child—perceive thy might and majesty.
”
”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley)
“
Anyone can tell that Freddy is no thief.”
“She’s right about that,” the dull-witted Freddy put in helpfully. “I’ve got two left feet-can’t go anywhere without running into something. That’s probably why they caught me.”
“Ah, but in cases like this, the fools generally prevail. Those fellows out there don’t care about the truth. They just want your cousin’s blood.”
Panic showed in her face. “You mustn’t let them have it!”
He stifled a smile. “I could put in a good word for him, soothe their tempers and get you two out of this with your necks attached. If…”
She instantly stiffened. “If what?”
“If you accept my proposition.”
A fetching blush spread over her pretty cheeks. “I shan’t give up my virtue, even to save my neck.”
“Did I say anything about giving up your virtue?”
She blinked. “Well…no. But given the kind of man you are-“
“And what kind is that?” This should be amusing.
“You know.” She tipped up her chin. “The kind who spends his time in brothels. I’ve heard all about you English lords and your debauchery.”
“I don’t want your virtue, my dear.” He flicked his glance down her delectable body and suppressed a sigh. “Not that I don’t find the idea tempting, but right now I have more urgent concerns.”
And no man of rank was fool enough to seduce a virgin-that was the surest way to end up leg-shackled to a schemer. Besides, he preferred experienced women. They knew how to pleasure a man without plaguing him about his feelings.
“This may surprise you,” he went on, “but I rarely have trouble finding women to join me willingly in bed. I’ve no need to force a pretty thief there.”
“I’m not a thief!”
“Frankly, I don’t care if you are. The important thing is that you suit my purpose perfectly.”
She had the same brash temperament as his sisters, which Gran had always deplored. She had the sort of upbringing that Americans seemed to prize and Englishmen to despise. A mother who’d been a shopkeeper’s daughter, and a father who’d been an illegitimate American of no consequence? Who’d fought in the very revolution that had cost Gran her only son? He couldn’t ask for better.
”
”
Sabrina Jeffries (The Truth About Lord Stoneville (Hellions of Halstead Hall, #1))
“
America capital has taken up this easy banner of world disorder and we are simply the poor willing fools that follow on behind. We are expected and asked to beat the Russians to death, and yet we are the ultimate victims ourselves: we socialists, we democrats, we progressives, we liberals, we republicans. Though it isn't the private crusade of America, American capital is conducting it, financing it, directing it, and using it, because America to-day is in the hands of violent expansionists, imperialists, capitalists, fascists—call them what you like. They believe the world is theirs, with their atom bomb and their sickening dollars. They are men who have seized America from the feeble hands of a frightened man, and through him they are directing a brazen attack upon the common liberties of all men. With our Imperialists they ask the world to stop Russia!
Stop Russia for what?...So that American capital can extend its economic and political dominion over this entire universe, even to the poles! Like our own--these American imperialists are terrified of any movement for social and economic freedom because their Imperialism cannot exist in a better world and they know it. It cannot exist while Russia remains an example in social ownership and social courage.
If we ever looked to America for leadership in human affairs, we may have looked to the late President Roosevelt, but these men are not Roosevelt men. Roosevelt's men have gone. Instead we have the new men of America. The men of capital representation, of military ambition, of political threat, of economic force. These are the men we are expected to follow in this great campaign against Russia. But it isn't only Russia that they attack. Their war is upon a world of resisting people who seek self-determination and some ultimate, simple, liberty. Their war is upon every progressive citizen, particularly those desperate partisans who fight for their liberty in America itself. Already the American schemers have the world by the throat. This very nation they have buttered with their silver dollars, saving us from the sins of all-out Socialism. Our entire economy to-day is primed and based on the American loan. What more dominion could one nation have over another?
”
”
James Aldridge (The Diplomat)
“
At the sound of the heavy knob turning, he cursed under his breath. She was coming in, damn it!
To stop Maria before she ruined everything, he grabbed her about the waist, hauled her against him, and sealed his mouth to hers.
At first she seemed too stunned to do anything. When after a moment, he felt her trying to draw back from him, he caught her behind the neck in an iron grip.
“Oh,” Gran said in a stiff voice. “Beg pardon.”
Dimly he heard the door close and footsteps retreating, but before he could let Maria go, a searing pain shot through his groin, making him see stars. Blast her, the woman had kneed him in the ballocks!
As he doubled over, fighting to keep from passing out, she snapped, “That was for making me look like a whore, too!”
When she turned for the door, he choked out, “Wait!”
“Why should I?” she said, heading inexorably forward. “You’ve done nothing but insult and humiliate me before your family.”
Still reeling, he presented his only ace in the hole, “If you return to town,” he called after her, “what will you do about your Nathan?”
That halted her, thank God.
He forced himself to straighten, though the room spun a little. “You still need my help, you know.”
Slowly, she faced him. “So far you haven’t demonstrated any genuine intent to offer help,” she said icily.
“But I will.” He gulped down air, struggling for mastery over his pain. “Tomorrow we’ll return to town and hire a runner. I know one who’s very adept. You can tell him everything you’ve learned so far about your fiancés disappearance, and I’ll make sure he pursues it.”
“And in exchange, all I have to do is pretend to be a whore?”
He grimaced. Christ, she felt strongly about this. He should have known that any woman who would thrust a sword at him wouldn’t be easily bullied.
“No.”
“No, what?” she demanded.
“You needn’t pretend to be a whore. Just don’t leave. This can still work.”
“I don’t see how,” she shot back. “You’ve already said we met in a brothel. Telling them we’re thieves is no better. I won’t have them thinking that we’re about to steal you blind.”
“I’ll come up with some story, don’t worry,” he clipped out.
“Something else to make me sound like a low, grasping schemer?”
“No” She had him cornered, and she knew it. “Trust me, your background alone is enough to alarm Gran. She pretends not to mind it right now, but she won’t let it go on. Just stay. I’ll make it right, I swear.
”
”
Sabrina Jeffries
“
Vanuit duisternis, werd geen schemer waargenomen. Licht enkel, bracht dageraad.
”
”
Petra Hermans
“
The past does have a romantic glow for many people though and to such we must give the reminder that an upstart bully of a Roman officer is no more glamorous than his modern West Point or Sandhurst counterpart; similarly, a scheming Egyptian priest of Amon-Ra or Osiris is little different from his modern counterpart jockeying for a sinecure in the church. Not that all military officers are vain bullies or all priests ambitious schemers of course — far from it—but the point is that ancient folly is no more commendable or exciting than modern folly.
”
”
Gareth Knight (Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism)
“
Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg played the central role in Operation Valkyrie, also known as the July 20th bomb plot, the 1944 attempt on Hitler’s life that (unlike most of the Army's previous efforts) nearly succeeded. The subject of numerous books and at least one high-profile popular film, Operation Valkyrie came even closer than Georg Elser's bombing attempt to killing Hitler. Since at least 1943, Stauffenberg had involved himself in covert resistance to Hitler and scheming against the Fuhrer's life. The officers engaged in these ambitious plans worked out a strategy, “Valkyrie,” that would enable the seizure of key spots and the arrest or elimination of crucial Nazi personnel in the event Hitler died, allowing the schemers to assume the reins of power or at least attempt to do
”
”
Charles River Editors (Erwin Rommel and Heinz Guderian: The Lives and Careers of Nazi Germany’s Legendary Tank Commanders)
“
There was one endless plot at the core of Backstage Wife: sweet Mary Noble stood in the wings as scores of Broadway glamor girls took dead aim at her sometimes fickle man. With Stella Dallas and Helen Trent, Mary was one of the most tortured creatures of the afternoon. The word “suffer” does no justice to Mary’s life with Larry Noble. Mary endured. She faced the most startling array of hussies, jezebels, and schemers ever devised in a subgenre that made an art form of such shenanigans. Add to this the common soap opera ingredients—arrogant foes in high places, misunderstandings that real people would correct in a moment, and festering resentment fueled by the refusal to communicate—then move on to the real meat of this agony of agonies: avarice, backbiting, hatred, amnesia, insanity, murder. Larry Noble may have been a “matinee idol of a million other women,” but Mary too had her admirers. Most of them were psychotics, and this led Backstage Wife to a frantic level of melodrama touched by few other soaps in radio history.
”
”
John Dunning (On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio)
“
I love him Gram, but he’s a bad guy,” she said. “They all are baby. Some are drinkers, some liars, some cheaters, some schemers…all men are bad men, we just have to love the good in em’. When you find the man that’s yours you take the bad with the good, because when it’s good baby…it’s the best thing in the world,” Gram said.
”
”
Ashley Antoinette (Love Burn 2)
“
Ik wil liggen in een karmozijnen kamerjas, afgezet met konijnenbont, die over de randen van mijn chaise longue heen en weer golft op de knus krakende vloer van oud hout, dat nooit meer zal werken, in het woonvertrek, dat mijn oude, betrouwbare butler zo warm stookt dat mijn gedachten smelten als de sneeuwvlokken tegen de buitenkant van de vuile ramen. En daar wil,ik toeven, in de zacht knisperende schemer van durende tijd die van geen uur wil weten, waar droombeelden voorbijglijden als handen over ogen, als schaduwen over de muur. De oude boter is nog goed. Ik kan hem eten met rijstvelden suiker. De krenten kunnen wellen in de ingekookte thee. Ik blaas de de vliegen weg. Terwijl ik wegdrijf in een halfslaap
, krabtvde butler met een spateltje de bruine korsten van mijn voeten. 'Er is vandaag een brief gekomen,' zegt hij.' Maar niets om u zorgen over te maken. Ik heb hem ongeopend in de haard gegooid' ' ' Krijgen we bezoek?'' Ik zie het als mijn voornaamstectaakndat u rustig kan blijven slapen.
”
”
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (Brieven uit Genua)
“
I. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earngs to create an estate for his future and that of his family. II. Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field. III. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling. IV. Gold slippeth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep. V. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.
”
”
George S. Clason (The Richest Man in Babylon)
“
The history of the land is a history of blood.
In this history, someone wins and someone loses. There are patriots and enemies. Folk heroes who save the day. Vanquished foes who had it coming.
It’s all in the telling.
The conquered have no voice. Ask the thirty-eight Santee Sioux singing the death song with the nooses around their necks, the treaty signed fair and square, then nullified with a snap of the rope. Ask the slave women forced to bear their masters’ children, to raise and love them and see them sold. Ask the miners slaughtered by the militia in Ludlow.
Names are erased. The conqueror tells the story. The colonizer writes the history, winning twice: A theft of land. A theft of witness.
Oh, but let’s not speak of such things! Look: Here is an eagle whipping above the vast grasslands where the buffalo once thundered bold as gods. (The buffalo are here among the dead. So many buffalo.) There is the Declaration in sepia. (Signed by slave owners. Shhh, hush up about that, now!) See how the sun shines down upon the homesteaders’ wagons racing toward a precious claim in the nation’s future, the pursuit of happiness pursued without rest, destiny made manifest? (Never mind about those same homesteaders eating the flesh of neighbors. Winters are harsh in this country. Pack a snack.)
The history is a hungry history. Its mouth opens wide to consume. It must be fed. Bring me what you would forget, it cries, and I will swallow it whole and pull out the bones bleached of truth upon which you will hang the myths of yourselves. Feed me your pain and I will give you dreams and denial, a balm in Gilead. The land remembers everything, though. It knows the steps of this nation’s ballet of violence and forgetting.
The land receives our dead, and the dead sing softly the song of us: blood. Blood on the plains. In the rivers. On the trees where the ropes swing. Blood on the leaves. Blood under the flowers of Gettysburg, of Antioch. Blood on the auction blocks. Blood of the Lenape, the Cherokee, the Cheyenne. Blood of the Alamo. Blood of the Chinese railroad workers. Blood of the midwives hung for witchcraft, for the crime of being women who bleed. Blood of the immigrants fleeing the hopeless, running toward the open arms of the nation’s seductive hope, its greatest export. Blood of the first removed to make way for the cities, the factories, the people and their unbridled dreams: The chugging of the railways. The tapping of the telegram. The humming of industry. Sound burbling along telephone wires. Printing presses whirring with the day’s news. And the next day’s. And the day after that’s. Endless cycles of information. Cities brimming with ambitions used and discarded.
The dead hold what the people throw away. The stories sink the tendrils of their hope and sorrow down into the graves and coil around the dead buried there, deep in its womb.
All passes away, the dead whisper. Except for us. We, the eternal. Always here. Always listening. Always seeing.
One nation, under the earth. E Pluribus unum mortuis.
Oh, how we wish we could reach you! You dreamers and schemers! Oh, you children of optimism! You pioneers! You stars and stripes, forever! Sometimes, the dreamers wake as if they have heard. They take to the streets. They pick up the plow, the pen, the banner, the promise. They reach out to neighbors. They reach out to strangers. Backs stooped from a hard day’s labor, two men, one black, one white, share water from a well. They are thirsty and, in this one moment, thirst and work make them brothers. They drink of shared trust, that all men are created equal. They wipe their brows and smile up at a faithful sun.
”
”
Libba Bray
“
The world of biology is more like a wild playing field with anarchic elements, where the rules of creative togetherness are constantly being renegotiated, where gang wars break out between little groups of co-conspirators and schemers, but also where one finds acts of magnanimous sharing, heroic dedication, and dreamlike bliss.
”
”
Andreas Weber (Matter and Desire: An Erotic Ecology)
“
I am always saying “Glad to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though. J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye Jorge Trevino is a professional liar. When we hear the word “liar,” the image that usually springs to mind is of a malevolent schemer whispering lies, deceits and half-truths from the shadows, like Iago in William Shakespeare’s Othello. Trevino is nothing like that. He is friendly and good-natured, one of the
”
”
Shankar Vedantam (Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain)
“
In his book American Homicide, Roth notes that in the 1850s “aggression and vitriolic language invaded personal as well as political relationships and turned everyday encounters over debts or minor offenses like trespassing into deadly ones.” Fellow citizens, he writes, “killed each other over card games, races, dogfights, wrestling matches, and raffles.
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”
Miles Harvey (The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch)
“
In American Homicide, Roth attributes the sharp spike in murder rates during the late 1840s and 1850s to the fact that “Americans could no longer coalesce.…Disillusioned by the course the nation was taking, people felt increasingly alienated from both their government and their neighbors.
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”
Miles Harvey (The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch)
“
Secrets are the currency of the dishonest, the schemer. They are singular, a shrouded truth that has been hidden to serve an agenda. Secrets are fleeting. The thrill of uncovering a secret is intense, but forgotten too soon, like the first bit of something sweet.
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”
Karl Forshaw (Renia (Luna Ruinam, #1))
“
Some are drinkers, some liars, some cheaters, some schemers…all men are bad men, we just have to love the good in em’.
”
”
Ashley Antoinette (Love Burn 2)
“
Why is it that men are considered to be cunning planners, while women are usually called conniving schemers, do you think?
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”
Stacia Stark (A Kingdom This Cursed and Empty (Kingdom of Lies, #2))
“
George Stout saw through their acts. “I am sick of all schemers,” he wrote, “of all the vain crawling toads who now edge into positions of advantage and look for selfish gain or selfish glory from all this suffering.”13
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”
Robert M. Edsel (The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, And The Greatest Treasure Hunt In History)
“
Listen carefully, never assume that just because a smaller problem hasn’t exploded into a bigger problem before, it’s never going to. Wrong. That’s exactly what the enemy wants us to think. Don’t ever forget what a schemer he is.
”
”
Susie Larson (Your Sacred Yes: Trading Life-Draining Obligation for Freedom, Passion, and Joy)
“
But when he heard news of her engagement to another man, Nathaniel was cast utterly adrift. Sinking deeper and deeper into a violent depression, he'd come up with a list of three possible plans over several jugs of ale at the local tavern.
One. Kill W. Shaw.
Two. Kidnap D. Makepiece (until she concedes her mistake).
Three. Kill W. Shaw.
He was never a very great schemer.
”
”
Jayne Fresina (How to Rescue a Rake (Book Club Belles Society, #3))
“
OUD ZIJN, dat is lichaam worden;
is, eenzaam in de avond zijn.
Wel wijs misschien maar vreesverloren
en in de avond eenzaam zijn.
Voor wie als kind de avond vreesde,
is oud zijn een vertrouwde staat.
Hij kent de weemoed van de schemer
en vreest de nacht die komen gaat.
Want wie de avond wil verstaan,
moet in den dag niet willen leven.
Wie zich het zonlicht heeft gegeven,
zal in de avond ondergaan.
”
”
Willem Brakman
“
De kamer leeg.
een vale grauwe nacht.
een schemering die aan den dood ontsteeg
wij liggen eenzaam op de zwarte baar
en zullen weldra op de klippen stranden
drijven wij naar den dood
of in den ronde?
de rozen worden zwarter in uw haar
waar zijn uw handen?
”
”
Hendrik Marsman (Verzamelde gedichten)
“
I’m Captain Florida, the state history pimp Gatherin’ more data than a DEA blimp West Palm, Tampa Bay, Miami-Dade Cruisin’ the coasts till Johnny Vegas gets laid Developer ho’s, and the politician bitches Smackin’ ’em down, while I’m takin’ lots of pictures Hurricanes, sinkholes, natural disaster ’Scuse me while I kick back, with my View-Master (S:) I’m Captain Florida, obscure facts are all legit (C:) I’m Coleman, the sidekick, with a big bong hit (S:) I’m Captain Florida, staying literate (C:) Coleman sees a book and says, “Fuck that shit” Ain’t never been caught, slippin’ nooses down the Keys Got more buoyancy than Elián González Knockin’ off the parasites, and takin’ all their moola Recruiting my apostles for the Church of Don Shula I’m an old-school gangster with a psycho ex-wife Molly Packin’ Glocks, a shotgun and my 7-Eleven coffee Trippin’ the theme parks, the malls, the time-shares Bustin’ my rhymes through all the red-tide scares (S:) I’m the surge in the storms, don’t believe the hype (C:) I’m his stoned number two, where’d I put my hash pipe? (S:) Florida, no appointments and a tank of gas (C:) Tequila, no employment and a bag of grass Think you’ve seen it all? I beg to differ Mosquitoes like bats and a peg-leg stripper The scammers, the schemers, the real estate liars Birthday-party clowns in a meth-lab fire But dig us, don’t diss us, pay a visit, don’t be late And statistics always lie, so ignore the murder rate Beaches, palm trees and golfing is our curse Our residents won’t bite, but a few will shoot first Everglades, orange groves, alligators, Buffett Scarface, Hemingway, an Andrew Jackson to suck it Solarcaine, Rogaine, eight balls of cocaine See the hall of fame for the criminally insane Artifacts, folklore, roadside attractions Crackers, Haitians, Cuban-exile factions The early-bird specials, drivin’ like molasses Condo-meeting fistfights in cataract glasses (S:) I’m the native tourist, with the rants that can’t be beat (C:) Serge, I think I put my shoes on the wrong feet (S:) A stack of old postcards in another dingy room (C:) A cold Bud forty and a magic mushroom Can’t stop, turnpike, keep ridin’ like the wind Gotta make a detour for a souvenir pin But if you like to litter, you’re just liable to get hurt Do ya like the MAC-10 under my tropical shirt? I just keep meeting jerks, I’m a human land-filler But it’s totally unfair, this term “serial killer” The police never rest, always breakin’ in my pad But sunshine is my bling, and I’m hangin’ like a chad (S:) Serge has got to roll and drop the mike on this rap . . . (C:) Coleman’s climbin’ in the tub, to take a little nap . . . (S:) . . . Disappearin’ in the swamp—and goin’ tangent, tangent, tangent . . . (C:) He’s goin’ tangent, tangent . . . (Fade-out) (S:) I’m goin’ tangent, tangent . . . (C:) Fuck goin’ platinum, he’s goin’ tangent, tangent . . . (S:) . . . Wikipedia all up and down your ass . . . (C:) Wikity-Wikity-Wikity . . .
”
”
Tim Dorsey (Electric Barracuda (Serge Storms #13))
“
De geweldige boomkronen, ver boven onze hoofden tot een altijd groen dak vervlochten, lieten maar betrekkelijk weinig daglicht door, zodat wij ons voortbewogen als in de schemering van een aquarium.
”
”
Hella S. Haasse (Oeroeg)
“
Trying to create an overly flattened society inevitably and unintentionally creates new centers of power. A revolution might dethrone the old rich, but only at the expense of empaneling an unchallenged communist party, along with a politburo and legions of clever schemers and ass kissers who turn into a new privileged class. The right way to deal with concentrations of power is not to try to vaporize them, but to balance them.
”
”
Jaron Lanier
“
(By contrast, 15 percent of Pennsylvania is publicly owned lands, as is 44 percent of California, 68 percent of Idaho, and more than 90 percent of Alaska.) In
”
”
Edward Humes (Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet)
“
Dan die idiote middag en avond. Er zijn dagen waarop ik niemand opendoe. Op zo'n dag komt ze langs. Het is een warme zomermiddag. Er wordt gebeld. Ik doe dus niet open. Maar ze weet kennelijk dat ik thuis ben. Ze belt bij mijn onderbuurvrouw en de voordeur wordt voor haar geopend. Ze komt de trappen op en klopt op mijn deur. Ik sta toevallig in de achterkamer en blijf staan waar ik sta, bij het raam, uitkijkend over de loodsen van de werf. Als ik opendoe, ben ik verloren en begint het spel waaraan ik wil ontkomen opnieuw.
Ze praat tegen me door de deur. Ik raak steeds vastbeslotener om niet open te doen. Ik hoor hoe ze zuchtend op de trap gaat zitten om te wachten tot ik zal opendoen. Ze heeft geduld. Zonder een stap te zetten kan ik van mijn werktafel net Kavafis' gedichten pakken - zodat ik tenminste wat te lezen heb. Ik leg het boek op de vensterbank en lees. Ik luister en hoor aan de overkant van het water het verkeer onder de bomen, beneden me de geluiden van mijn onderbuurvrouw en uit het trappenhuis het geschuifel van haar voeten.
Het duurt een uur, dit gevecht. Eindelijk gaat ze weg. Ik hoor haar de trappen aflopen, de voordeur openen en achter zich dichttrekken. Ze is weg. Ik heb gewonnen en verloren.
's Avonds ben ik naar haar toe gegaan. Een smalle straat in de binnenstad. Een stille en vredige zomeravond. Ze is alleen thuis. Ik lig op de sofa in haar werkkamer, in de schemering, en zij ligt boven op me. Ik heb Kavafis meegenomen en lees haar het gedicht voor dat me die middag tijdens het lange stilstaan het meest trof. Nadat ik het heb gelezen, barst ze in tranen uit. Ze sjort wat kleren omlaag en stopt mijn zwellend geslacht tussen haar dijen.
Weldra is de storm voorbij. We liggen roerloos op de sofa. Ons zweet droogt. Ik luister naar de merel in de doodstille straat. Ik kijk naar de blinkende spiegel boven de sofa, waarin de kamer langzaam donker wordt. De onrust heeft me alweer te pakken.
”
”
Oek de Jong (Brief aan een jonge Atlas)
“
...clearly Michael Eisner’s most glaring defect, the one quality more than any other that has caused him to leave behind a trail of deeply embittered former colleagues: his dishonesty. Considering the importance Eisner places on honesty in others—dating at least to the childhood incident in which he believes his mother lied about his bedtime—it is extraordinary that Eisner himself has been so reckless with the truth, in ways both large and small, to a degree that suggests he is at times incapable of distinguishing one from the other. Far more than just a personality quirk, Eisner’s tendency to distort, embellish, or forget the truth had direct and costly business consequences for Disney. More than any other single factor, what Steve Jobs and the Weinstein brothers considered Eisner’s dishonesty accounts for the failure of the important Pixar and Miramax relationships. Katzenberg was so angry and bitter—and willing to sue—because he believed he was lied to and felt betrayed.
”
”
James B. Stewart (Disney War)
“
McLennan worked a lot with Ashley Dupré, a fact she plays up from the start of her book, The Price: My Rise and Fall as Natalia, New York’s #1 Escort. Ashley is described as young and guileless, not a savvy schemer like McLennan; her secret is that she has “the glow,” and “a near-perfect body” including a “beautiful coochie” that would make her the city’s next escort phenomenon.
”
”
Charlotte Shane (An Honest Woman: A Memoir of Love and Sex Work)
“
First, the frenzy to buy art meant that paintings turned up out of nowhere, every day, and sold with no questions asked. Second, the Nazis had endless reserves of cash. Third, Hitler and Goering were rubes who fancied themselves connoisseurs. (In Goering’s case, at least, his chief art expert was no great shakes, either.) Fourth, the Nazis were not the only ones in the market. Faced with the hideous prospect of Dutch masterpieces falling into German hands, Holland’s art establishment and its great industrialists flung money at the sellers. Best of all, from a schemer’s point of view, all the wheeling-and-dealing went on at hyperspeed, with no time for reflection or second thoughts. With ordinary paintings, this urgency posed no great danger—faced with a middling work, one could make only a middling mistake. But make the purchase of a lifetime in haste and you might well make the mistake of a lifetime.
”
”
Edward Dolnick (The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century (P.S.))
“
I had discovered that practically all the history we know is a lie. Of all the noble, vaunted heroes we hear about, at least half were contemptible liars and schemers who used their influence to claim achievements and write the histories, and managed to succeed. Of those who really did give everything for truth and justice, two-thirds choked to death horribly and quietly in the dust of history, forgotten by everyone, and the remaining one-third had their reputations smeared into eternal infamy, just like Song Cheng.
”
”
Liu Cixin (To Hold Up the Sky)
“
Ze kwamen bij het laatste licht tevoorschijn, als de zon al achter de kam was verdwenen maar nog niet onder was, het tijdstip dat door de Fransen ‘entre chien et loup’ wordt genoemd. Santorso vond dat een mooie uitdrukking. Tussen hond en wolf, tussen schemering en duisternis …
”
”
Paolo Cognetti
“
To the Victorian public, proud of their national tradition of liberal policing and of Britain as a beacon of tolerance, the very idea of a political police carried the stigma of foreign despotism. In the nineteenth century, Britain’s elected politicians would never have dared venture anything resembling the kind of legislation that recent years have seen passed with barely a blink of the public eye, to threaten civil liberties that have for generations been taken for granted. That changing times demanding changing laws is hard to dispute, but if new powers are to be conceded it is essential that we be ever more vigilant in guarding against their abuse. Likewise, if our political leaders are allowed blithely to insist that ‘history’ should be their judge, then we should at least be in no doubt that the historians of the future will have access to the material necessary to hold those leaders to account for any deceptions they may have practiced. Histories bearing an official sanction, of the kind that appeal to today’s security services, are not a satisfactory alternative. This book is a pebble cast on the other side of the scales.
”
”
Alex Butterworth (The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists, and Secret Agents)
“
On 28 March, the ‘Paris Commune’ was officially declared, ‘in the name of the people,’ in a benign spectacle staged outside the Hôtel de Ville, with red flags flapping in the wind and red sashes worn with pride. That the representatives of the city, whose election had restored to Paris after a long absence the same administrative rights enjoyed by ‘communes’ of villages, towns and cities throughout France, should have chosen to adopt a similar corporate appellation was unsurprising. An already nervous bourgeoisie, however, would have received the news with profound unease, for it had been ‘the Commune’ of Paris that had deposed Louis XVI in 1792, and that had wielded substantial power behind the scenes throughout the Terror, growing every more monstrous in its whims. Nevertheless, for many the ceremony was to be cherished as a rare cause for jubilation.
”
”
Alex Butterworth (The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists, and Secret Agents)
“
People who were schemers could control their own microexpressions, while some masters of the art could even precisely arrange their body language. But who could control their own brain?
”
”
Priest (烈火浇愁 [Lie Huo Jiao Chou] Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire)
“
Vae Victis (en latin dans le texte : Malheur aux vaincus, référence à Tite-Live)
variations sur un thème du poète A.E. Baconsky
de moins en moins écouteront
et même moins comprendront et de plus
en plus d'intrigants partisans de Jacob
enlèvent l'écorce du peuplier
en même temps qu'ils espionnent
des prédicateurs de futilité
nés de
mots volontairement gaspillés
c'est ce que son avertissement s'est révélé être comme
des paraboles se transforment en rire rauque
les frères agitent de grands bâtons
des flûtes sans voix se cachent
au fond de vieux havresacs et
des couteaux triomphants sont aiguisés
pour égorger l'agneau en pleurant
[Vae Victis
variations on a theme by the poet A.E. Baconsky
fewer and fewer will listen
even fewer will understand and more
and more Jacob-minded schemers
are peeling poplar bark
while spying on silenced
preachers of futility
born of
purposedly wasted words
that's what his warning turned out to be as
parables work themselves into raucous laughter
brothers are swinging high sticks
voiceless flutes are hiding out
at the bottom of old haversacks and
triumphant knives are being whetted
to tearfully cut the lamb's throat]
(p. 149, "Vae Victis")
”
”
Sándor Kányádi (Dancing Embers)
“
Cocky, fake, slimy, inelegant, ineloquent, charmless, witless, weird, sinister, glacially cold and luminescently remote, he may be the most chillingly repulsive politician of even this golden generation. If Pixar set out to create a CGI character to embody everything the public has learned to despise about its political class, they'd be thrilled to come up with this lizardy schemer {Ed Balls], who may have slipped through a tear in the fabric of space-time himself.
”
”
Matthew Norman
“
confidence artist to the very end.
”
”
Miles Harvey (The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch)
“
The Five Laws of Gold 1. Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family. 2. Gold laboreth diligently and contentedly for the wise owner who finds for it profitable employment, multiplying even as the flocks of the field. 3. Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under the advice of men wise in its handling. 4. Gold slippeth away from the man who invests it in businesses or purposes with which he is not familiar or which are not approved by those skilled in its keep. 5. Gold flees the man who would force it to impossible earnings or who followeth the alluring advice of tricksters and schemers or who trusts it to his own inexperience and romantic desires in investment.
”
”
George S. Clason (The Richest Man in Babylon)
“
Wat is toch dat moment in ons leven dat cynisme de overhand krijgt over intuïtie? Wanneer maakt het voelen van de zachtheid van regendruppels in ons gezicht plaats voor de bezorgdheid dat we nat worden? Wanneer stopt de verwondering over het zien van een das die in de schemering in het gras wroet, over het horen van geluiden die meegevoerd worden door de wind of van onze eigen echo die daarin weerklinkt?
”
”
Raynor Winn (The Wild Silence)