#pretence

Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences. ↗

— John Buchan

#comfortable #compact #conspiracy #folk #keep

Malice can always find a mark to shoot at, and a pretence to fire. ↗

— Charles Simmons

#find #fire #malice #mark #pretence

There are people one knows and people one doesn't. One shouldn't cheapen the former by feigning intimacy with the latter. ↗

— Tony Horwitz

#intimacy #pretence #shelby-foote #friendship

We may not commit a lesser Sin under pretence to avoid a greater, but we may, nay we ought to endure the greatest Pain and Grief rather than commit the least Sin. ↗

— Mary Astell

#commit #endure #greater #greatest #grief

The Relation we bear to the Wisdom of the Father, the Son of His Love, gives us indeed a dignity which otherwise we have no pretence to. It makes us something, something considerable even in God's Eyes. ↗

— Mary Astell

#considerable #dignity #even #eyes #father

True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long. ↗

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

#counterfeit #even #fall #false #flowers

The Chinese art world does not exist. In a society that restricts individual freedoms and violates human rights, anything that calls itself creative or independent is a pretence. It is impossible for a totalitarian society to create anything with passion and imagination. ↗

— Ai Weiwei

#art #art world #calls #chinese #create

I love the idea of spies in love. How would it work between two people who were so programmed to lie and be suspicious, who have a whole life based on pretence? ↗

— Tony Gilroy

#between #how #i #i love #idea