Quotes About Deception

DeBow's Review noted with contempt. "It is a melancholy exemplification of the facility with which a philanthropist, who devotes himself exclusively to the eradication of one form of evil, can deceive himself, and come to regard any means justifiable, in the pursuance of a supposed good end," the reviewer said. "That subtle analyst of character, Nathaniel Hawthorne, has ably dissected this species of delusion in the Blithedale romance." He recommended that Stowe

What's a crook, only a businessman without a shop.

The Good News means we can stop lying to ourselves. The sweet sound of amazing grace saves us from the necessity of self-deception. It keeps us from denying that though Christ was victorious, the battle with lust, greed, and pride still rages within us.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious convictions.

The choice usually presented to Christians is not between Jesus and Barabbas. No one wants to appear an obvious murderer. The choice to be careful about is between Jesus and Caiaphas. And Caiaphas can fool us. He is a very "religious" man.

We hide what we know or feel ourselves to be (which we assume to be unacceptable and unlovable) behind some kind of appearance which we hope will be more pleasing. We hide behind pretty faces which we put on for the benefit of our public. And in time we may even come to forget that we are hiding, and think that our assumed pretty face is what we really look like.

The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.

Which I wish to remark,And my language is plain,That for ways that are darkAnd for tricks that are vain,The heathen Chinee is peculiar,Which the same I would rise to explain.

I sometimes think that normal, everyday life is only a delusion. We walk on a think crust of earth which we call peace; and every now and again we can hear a rumble below our feet; and sometimes the crust splits and we see that, underneath there is a glowing inferno ready to erupt. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, but it is always there.

But then, maybe "I don't believe in you" is the cruelest way to kill a monster.

You don't return people's smiles—it's perfectly clear to you that people can smile and smile and still be villains.

Dag na dag, een deel van iedere nacht, zaten wij naast elkaar als vreemden. Glimlachende maskers en levenloze opgevulde pronkgewaden: markies en markiezin van Pescara.

If we proceed like the child does with the puppy, if we examine what is hidden in things and persons, in everything that is stimulating in this colorful world, then we will uncover nothing more than that kind of atomized sawdust with which 'science' for a long time has been feeding those hungry for knowledge. Everything real looked at in the light disappoints. The forms lose their shine, color, and aroma, like a fruit that someone has grasped too strongly.

As if any of us could bear to live in a world of unadulterated truth!

We used to send whole flocks of birds shooting out of our mouths and never managed to grab them by their wings.

Alati on lihtsam jälgida nupukalt konstrueeritud valet kui leida ähmast tõde.

in a rash moment he decided to lie his way to the truth. If he wasn't mistaken, Ellen Magnusson had had very little experience with the police. She would assume that they searched for the truth by being honest themselves. She was the one who would lie, not the police.

The game had started. Everybody was assuring everybody else how reliable they were. In fact, nobody trusted anybody but themselves

After all his years as a politician he realised all that was left was the lie. The truth disguised as a lie or the lie dressed up as the truth.

Trusting what a person says is always a risk. The truth is always provisional, while lies are often solid.

Después de tantos años como político había comprendido que lo único que quedaba era la mentira. La verdad disfrazada de mentira o la mentira encubierta de verdad.

They say there's a crime behind every fortune.

La vieillesse est le côté sombre de la vie et rien d'autre. Elle n'est qu'une illusion, un miroir aux alouettes.

There's no such thing as a murderer's face," he said. "You imagine something: a profile, a hairline, a set of the jaw. But it never matches up.