#deceit

It was as though, so long as the deceit ran along quiet and monotonous, all of us let ourselves be deceived, abetting it unawares or maybe through cowardice, since all people are cowards and naturally prefer any kind of treachery because it has a bland outside. ↗

— William Faulkner

#enabling #nature

Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man. ↗

— Henry Adams

#deceitful #ever #man #mistress #most

Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast. ↗

— Jane Austen

#boast #carelessness #deceitful #humility #indirect

Everybody has the ability to be manipulative, to be hateful and deceitful. ↗

— Neil LaBute

#deceitful #everybody #hateful #manipulative

I love that she loves me a 10, on a 5-point scale. Well, I know it’s a 5-point scale, though I asked her on a 1-100 scale.

 ↗

— Dark Jar Tin Zoo

#deceit #deceived #deception #delirious #funny

…deceitful!” she decided with a little bounce of fury that briefly ballooned the silk of her trousers. “There! You deceitful …” “Gillia…” “…misleading, dishonest, insincere…” “Those are all the same words, Gill—” “Ooh! Liar!” She’d managed to get her hands on a small pillow. He ducked just as it whizzed past him. In justice, however, it did strike the mosaic vase behind him on an engraved mahogany pedestal, and it tipped and spun on its base before landing in a shattered heap on the bare floor. “Now, look what you’ve done!” she accused tearfully and bolted from the room. ↗

— V.S. Carnes

#betrayal #deceit #romance #anger

There is no deception on the part of the woman, where a man bewilders himself: if he deludes his own wits, I can certainly acquit the women. Whatever man allows his mind to dwell upon the imprint his imagination has foolishly taken of women, is fanning the flames within himself -- and, since the woman knows nothing about it, she is not to blame. For if a man incites himself to drown, and will not restrain himself, it is not the water's fault. ↗

— John Gower

#clichés #deceit #delusion #discrimination #double-standards

It is better to believe an obvious lie, than to swallow a deceitful truth. ↗

— Dennis E. Adonis

#deceit #fooled #hurt #lies #no-truth

It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. ↗

— Noel Coward

#discouraging #few #honesty #how #many

O Lord, deliver me from the man of excellent intention and impure heart: for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. ↗

— T. S. Eliot

#all things #deceitful #deliver #desperately #excellent