Quotes About Manipulation

Perhaps you are making a cat's paw of me with Phillotson all this time. Upon my word it almost seems so--to see you sitting up there so prim.

Tess shrank into herself as if she had been struck. Often enough had he tried to reach those lips against her consent—often had he said gaily that her mouth and breath tasted of the butter and eggs and milk and honey on which she mainly lived, that he drew sustenance from them, and other follies of that sort. But he did not care for them now.

La femme n'étonne jamais autant son compagnon que par cette étrange capacité qu'elle possède de croire en des cajoleries qu'elle sait fausses - sauf, à dire vrai, quand elle se montre ouvertement sceptique vis-à-vis de remarques qu'elle sait être vraies.

Perhaps in no minor point does woman astonish her helpmate more than in the strange power she possesses of believing cajoleries that she knows to be false—except, indeed, in that of being utterly sceptical on strictures that she knows to be true.

It occurred to Dr. Lecter in the moment that with all his knowledge and intrusion, he could never entirely predict her, or own her at all. He could feed the caterpillar, he could whisper through the chrysalis; what hatched out followed its own nature and was beyond him. He wondered if she had the .45 on her leg beneath the gown. Clarice Starling smiled at him then, the cabochons caught the firelight and the monster was lost in self-congratulation at his own exquisite taste and cunning.

It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told.

Occasionally, on purpose, Dr. Lecter drops a teacup to shatter on the floor. He is satisfied when it does not gather itself together. For many months now, he has not seen Mischa in his dreams. Someday perhaps a cup will come together. Or somewhere Starling may hear a crossbow string and come to some unwilled awakening, if indeed she even sleeps.

Don't think you can persuade me with appeals to my intellectual vanity.

In making friends, she was wary of people who foster dependency and feed on it. She had been involved with a few--the blind attract them, and they are the enemy.

He did it because he liked it. Still does. Dr. Lecter is not crazy, in any common way we think of being crazy. He did some hideous things because he enjoyed them. But he can function perfectly when he wants to.

He was a person who agreed with everything his victim said before he killed him.

Dr. Lecter took off Krendler's runner's headband as you would remove the rubber band from a tin of caviar.

Two things to begin with. First, we go on the premise that Dr. Lecter really knows something concrete. second, we remember that Lecter looks only for the fun. Never forget fun.

it was Krendler's nature to both appreciate Starling's leg and look for the hamstring.

In making friends she was ever wary of people who foster dependency and feed on it.

She wondered if men actually regard that kind of manipulation as subtle.

Karla had not been a total loss—she had provided Hans-Peter with some amusement and he was able to sell both her kidneys.

Give an inch, he'll take an ell.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.

Wonderful is the effect of impudent and persevering lying.

The time will come when they will sell you even your rain.

Both threat and promise often come from the same political source.

Half the civilized world makes a living by telling lies. Advertising, propaganda, and all the other forms of publicity that have taken the place of truth have taught men to take it for granted that they can tell other people whatever they like provided that it sounds plausible and evokes some kind of shallow emotional response.