Quotes about Deception

Man's love of truth is such that when he loves something which is not the truth, he pretends to himself that what he loves is the truth, and because he hates to be proved wrong, he will not allow himself to be convinced that he is deceiving himself. So he hates the real truth for what he takes to his heart in its place.

Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue." Rochefoucauld's maxim

Reality rebounds, and things turn out the opposite of what they seem and what people expect. Strength becomes weakness; love becomes pornography; pleasure becomes boredom; and so on.

This means that, bad though it is and dangerous though its slipway may prove, there is a sense in which hypocrisy may be preferable to wickedness. Hypocrisy still cares enough about virtue to want to pretend to be virtuous, or at least it recognizes that the society around still prizes virtue enough to make it worth flattering.

The philosopher Marar writes, "As our hearts can't stop pumping blood, so our minds can't stop pumping illusions.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

What we have to do, what at any rate it is our duty to do, is to revive the old art of Lying.

A good friend will always stab you in the front.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

Simple active work and spiritual activity are not the same thing. Active work can actually be the counterfeit of spiritual activity.

Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound.

Beware of counterfeiting the love of God by working along the line of natural human sympathy, because that will end in blaspheming the love of God.