Quotes About Deception

Because in your political system, neither brilliance, nor even basic competence, seem to be prerequisites for getting elected to an office. Instead, the skills required seem to be popularity, and an ability to lie shamelessly with every breath, make false promises, and trash your opponents.

spiderwebs that looked expansive and sturdy enough to snare a flying dog.

Truth doesn't matter! It's what people will believe that matters.

We'll wait until he crouches down to bind us,

It's a false flag operation, and they've been successful.

Allie returned to MIT to finish her doctorate, only to discover that her advisor, Abraham Sena, whom she had admired, had stolen her thesis while she was gone, publishing it as if it were his own work.

Could he trust this man? He had thought he could trust Rourk, after all. And while Edgar Knight had always been a strange duck, he had trusted him as well. Until he learned otherwise—the hard way. Men were snakes. If God himself could be betrayed by an angel in Heaven—an angel named Satan, whom he was forced to cast out—certainly any man could be betrayed by any other man at any time.

she would say he had raped her, getting

Politics, noun: [Poly 'many' + tics 'blood-sucking parasites']" ?—Larry Hardiman "We hang the petty thieves. The master thieves we appoint to public office." ?—Aesop "Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so." ?—Gore Vidal

I'm just struck by how absolutely certain we can be about things for which there is no objective certainty. How stubborn. And how often we can fool ourselves.

Psychopaths personified the old saying: "Sincerity: if you can fake that you've got it made.

Hoyer looked almost amused. "In case you haven't guessed it," he continued, "Bryce Aronson isn't a psychopath. I am.

even after he had slipped a knife between your shoulder blades, you would think that this was somehow your fault.

POLITICS (noun): Poly, meaning "many" plus Tics, meaning "blood-sucking parasites." —Larry Hardiman "I believe that any politician who comes to power, in part, through his skill in debate and public speeches, who is agile in handling questions at news conferences, with a glistening TV or radio image, has the conversational talents to be a natural liar." —Paul Ekman, Telling Lies

Sun Tzu thousands of years earlier: All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; and when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

a diplomat is an honest man sent abroad to lie for the good of his country.

Politics, noun: [Poly 'many' + tics 'blood-sucking parasites']

Hitler believed that the bigger the lie, the more audacious, the more likely it was to be believed. Because who'd imagine someone would have the nerve to spread such a colossal lie? And the more such a lie was repeated, the more likely it would be accepted as truth.

Being inside Marc Fisher's head was agony. The man had the outside appearance of a human being, but he was not. It was like taking a bite of a perfect, shiny apple to find nothing but squirming maggots inside. Hall

We all talk about how much we hate lies. Yet we prefer, so often, to be lied to....because it allows us to dodge all those painful truths we'd rather not hear.

Roosevelt is dead: a man who would never tell the truth when a lie would serve him just as well.

having to sort of pretend – collectively – that it is in fact true.

Their writing has the deliberately obstructive style ordinarily employed when someone either has nothing to say or needs to conceal the fact that what they are saying is not true.

I have found that liars in the end communicate more truth than do truth tellers." "How's that?" "Because truth is the safest lie.