Quotes About Deception

Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.

Thus, to take a long and circuitous route, after enticing the enemy out of the way, and though starting after him, to contrive to reach the goal before him, shows knowledge of the artifice of deviation.

Practica las artes marciales, calcula la fuerza de tus adversarios, haz que pierdan su ánimo y dirección, de manera que aunque el ejército enemigo esté intacto sea inservible: esto es ganar sin violencia.

discuss the art of war."3 It seems likely, then, that

Ultimate excellence lies not in winning every battle, but in defeating the enemy without ever fighting.

If you are near the enemy, make him believe you are far from him. If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are now

This is a war against lies. If we want to win, we can't attack in straight lines.

What really pissed me off about what you wrote, Karen tried to tell Sarah as Sarah knelt screaming by Martin, as if Sarah had just one stage direction but was going to do it for all she was worth, is how you wrote so much just like it happened, and then left out the actual truth. Why even do that? Who do you think you're protecting?

People seemed to me to fill life with shadows that should not be there.

I looked for the sunniest spot I could find, but you know it was the damnedest thing—it sure looked like the sun and it was bright like the sun, but there was absolutely no warmth coming from it. And this wave of sadness came over me—the sun was just like my mother." (Quote from Heather, a patient)

Relabeling—a form of denial—takes a problem and hides it behind euphemisms.

Words got me into trouble. They are the deadliest weapons of all, so that now the gun seems almost innocent by comparison. I fired the shot to stop the words; they were so busy eating everything up. You have no idea how I hate words, how i see them winding out of people's mouths like sticky strands of a web, infinitely elastic, linking the speaker to the listener forever, and finally weaving an impermeable cocoon around the mind and then the poor, fast-beating heart itself.

I would act, pretend, and the pretense would become real.

Hypocrisy saves one's sanity. It's the shield you hide behind when the truth is too terrible to face

The trouble was that I could not now think of my marriage without being assaulted by a wave of  unbearable emotions which I felt quite unable to handle. Rage that Kim should have been deceiving me on such a huge scale, coupled with horror at his disastrous involvement with Mrs. Mayfield, were followed by grief that my love had apparently been a grand illusion, coupled with a violent, unforgiving self-disgust that I should have made such a devastating mess of my personal life …

That was the thing I hated, that I'd made such a lousy choice. But I didn't. You set out to convince me you were exactly what I was looking for. I had no reason to mistrust you. You lied, I didn't.

Sorry," he said. "I don't like her. No one in my family does. She's a manipulative bitch who will do anything to get her way." She

He must be really smart. That must make you proud. I certainly couldn't design a website and entice people to sign up for a cattle-drive vacation." Zane's ever-so-perfect mouth tightened. "He lied, stole and committed fraud. Pride doesn't much enter into it for me." Phoebe hunched down in her seat. "If you're going to put it like that," she mumbled and turned her attention to the scenery.

I am unable to lead a life based on an illusion.

It may be true that you can't judge a book by its cover, Daisy G. had told Blister just last summer. But the cover tells you something about the book and don't ever pretend it doesn't.

Image of an image of an image... But to record all the dips and upswings, in a sense falsifies them, and I start deluding myself and thinking all this is, or might be, real. Enough to play the game, or try to play it. A mistake to tally up the score.

the reality has come to seem more and more what we are shown by camera

The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.

Poor fool, ruining his life for a piece of cloth smeared with mineral paste, for a fake, I had to tell myself, a mere curiosity.