Quotes About Cunning

Frederick liked to say that three men behind the enemy were worth fifty in front of him.

If men had wings and bore black feathers, Few of them would be clever enough to be crows.

Stupidity often saves a man from going mad.

The more intelligent and cultured a man is, the more subtly he can humbug himself.

A proper secrecy is the only mystery of able men; mystery is the only secrecy of weak and cunning ones.

A Wolf eats sheep but now and then; Ten thousands are devour'd by men. An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretend friend is worse.

Bold knaves thrive without one grain of sense, But good men starve for want of impudence.

Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.

Full of wiles, full of guile, at all times, in all ways, are the children of Men.

One Man may be more cunning than another, but not more cunning than every body else.

For the task assigned them Men aren't smart enough or sly Any rogue can blind them With a clever lie.

Cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom.

That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.

Man's unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.

Talent? What is talent but the ability to get away with something?

for the devil never slumbers. And the nearer we are to perfection, the more careful we must be, since his temptations are then much more cunning because there are no others that he dare send us;

I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid.

even there, where the rejection of the system is taken for granted and for that reason a lax and cunning conformism of its own has developed.

The need always to lie and always to avoid the truth stripped everyone of what Custine called 'the two greatest gifts of God—the soul and the speech which communicates it.' People became hypocritical, cunning, mistrustful, cynical, silent, cruel, and indifferent to the fate of others as a result of the destruction of their own souls.

argued, with the inventive cunning that each of us possesses when a pet theory of ours is refuted by the evidence

A number of the heads of the offices were slippery politicians of a low moral grade, themselves appointed under the spoils system, and anxious, directly or indirectly, to break down the merit system and to pay their own political debts by appointing their henchmen and supporters to the positions under them. Occasionally these men acted with open and naked brutality. Ordinarily they sought by cunning to evade the law.

Upon the cunning loom of thought We weave our fancies, so and so.

You are wise, and know how to apply it.

There is another deity who is described as the calumniator of the gods and the contriver of all fraud and mischief. His name is Loki. He is handsome and well made, but of a very fickle mood and most evil disposition. He is of the giant race, but forced himself into the company of the gods, and seems to take pleasure in bringing them into difficulties, and in extricating them out of the danger by his cunning, wit, and skill.