Quotes About Subterfuge

It was said that Gilan could approach to within a few meters of a wide-awake sentry, steal his belt and shoes and leave the man wondering why his pants were falling down and his feet were cold. Horace knew it was an exaggeration—but not by much.

I tipped young Hylas with a sesterce and turned away discreetly while he disposed of it somewhere about his person. Slaves, especially small ones, must resort to certain subterfuges in order to prevent larger slaves from acquiring their wealth, and it is often inadvisable to wonder too much about where our money has been.

Like all domestic tyrants, he was shamelessly deceived and "managed" by the women of his establishment.

Beyond magic, the trick to going unnoticed is to look like you belong. And magic always works the better when it's assisted with symbolism and a little subterfuge.

His face gives nothing away; Valens plays his games on a dozen levels.

There's something about Richard that's hard to get used to, when you've been dealing with the likes of Valens, and I don't know how to describe it. They both delight in tricking people, in holding all the cards.

Alienor raised her eyebrows. "I can see straight through your ruse," she said. "Even if it is not plain on your face, Aimery de Niort is giving the game away." She glanced toward the young knight who was holding his own horse at the ready, his expression expectant and smug.

I do not scruple to employ mendacity and a fictitious appearance of female incompetence when the occasion demands it.

This is the wonderful thing about espionage, nothing exists any more.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

A real diplomat is one who can cut his neighbor's throat without having his neighbor notice it.

He wanted the world to believe that he was a horse rider. So let him ride his horses at the bottom of the ocean.

When you're trying to hide something,' Paul Martin advised, 'always do it out in the open. Then no one will believe you're doing anything wrong.

On July 30, 1723, when he was nineteen years old, Edwards wrote in his diary, "I have concluded to endeavor to work myself into duties by searching and tracing back all the real reasons why I do them not, and narrowly searching out all the subtle subterfuges of my thoughts." A week later he wrote, "Very much convinced of the extraordinary deceitfulness of the heart, and how exceedingly… appetite blinds the mind, and brings it into entire subjection.

I was aware of Shostakovich's hidden code; the repeated, niggling act of subterfuge buried deep within the music: D - E-flat - C - B, played straight through, played backwards, flipped upside down; a tattoo on the soul of the music.

German soldiers, posted as informers, were found dressed as peasants, even as peasant women. The latter were discovered, presumably in the course of non-military action, by their government issued underwear; but many were probably never caught, it being impossible, General Gourko regretfully admitted, to lift the skirts of every female in East Prussia.

disguising yourself wasn't just about making yourself look different; it was about making yourself look different from what people were looking for.

I'd seen the way he watched Felix when he thought nobody was paying attention, and it was the kind of look that makes your skin crawl. He laid traps for Felix, too, cunning things that Felix waltzed right out of without seeming to see. Sometimes you could almost hear Lord Shannon's teeth grinding.

I just want nice, neat little jobs from you, Lamora. I want a purse here, a sausage there. I want you to swallow your ambition, shit it out like a bad meal, and be a circumspect little teaser for about the next thousand years. Can you do that for me? Don't rob any more yellowjackets. Don't burn any more taverns. Don't start any more fucking riots. Just pretend to be a coarse-witted little cutpurse like your brothers and sisters. Clear?

The members of our secret service have apparently spent so much time under the bed looking for communists that they haven't had the time to look in the bed.

Like many other simple-hearted souls, it was her pet vanity to believe she was endowed with a talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy, and she loved to contemplate her most transparent devices as marvels of low cunning. Said

capacity would. He would probably consider that to send back the launch or to keep it at a wharf would make pursuit easy if the police did happen to get on his track. How, then, could he conceal the launch and yet have her at hand when wanted? I wondered

could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my

Do not do what you want to do, but what you judge your enemy least wants you to do