Quotes About Manipulation

If the chief party, whether it be the people, or the army, or the nobility, which you think most useful and of most consequence to you for the conservation of your dignity, be corrupt, you must follow their humor and indulge them, and in that case honesty and virtue are pernicious.

Half the work that is done in the world is to make things appear what they are not.

If the world will be gulled, let it be gulled.

I give you bitter pills in sugar coating. The pills are harmless: the poison is in the sugar.

Frank and explicit - this is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and to confuse the mind of others.

It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.

I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I speak the truth, and they never believe me.

Men hesitate less to injure a man who makes himself loved than to injure one who makes himself feared, for their love is held by a chain of obligation which, because of men's wickedness, is broken on every occasion for the sake of selfish profit; but their fear is secured by a dread of punishment.

A man that flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet.

Give an inch, he'll take an ell.

Gifts are hooks.

The devil gets up to the belfry by the vicar's skirts.

Generosity with strings is not generosity: it is a deal.

It is a trick among the dishonest to offer sacrifices that are not needed, or not possible, to avoid making those that are required.

When you say that you agree to a thing in principle, you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out.

It is a blind goose that cometh to the fox's sermon.

Attention spans are so limited and ticket prices so high. We're anyway in a business of manipulating emotions. But each film needs to be positioned truthfully so that people don't feel cheated.

Official truths are often powerful illusions.

Partial truths or half-truths are often more insidious than total falsehoods.

In politics, not all lies are all lies. And not all truths are complete.

We try to be real nice and friendly to people, but sometimes they take advantage of that.

When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.

I have no interest in trying to manipulate people's emotions or opinions.

Super Tuesday is the day on which most states hold their primaries. Its darker partner is Dirty Tricks Thursday: the Thursday before an election when candidates release scandalous stories to garner bad publicity for their opponent: the timing means the accused will have little time to refute the allegations.