#pretense

I didn't come from any kind of academic background, but I lived in a college town and I knew people who weren't without pretense. There was this idea in the town that if something was European it would be good. ↗

— Sarah Vowell

#any #background #college #come #european

So may the outward shows be least themselves: The world is still deceived with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. ↗

— William Shakespeare

#falsehood #law #ornament #pretense #religion

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there. ↗

— Eric Hoffer

#emptiness #evil #greatest #hardest #hide

You must not under any pretense allow your mind to dwell on any thought that is not positive, constructive, optimistic, kind. ↗

— Emmet Fox

#allow #any #constructive #dwell #kind

The crafty person is always in danger; and when they think they walk in the dark, all their pretenses are transparent. ↗

— John Tillotson

#crafty #danger #dark #person #pretenses

Pretense cannot sustain blind power. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#dejan-stojanovic #literature #literature-quotes #poetry #poetry-quotes

There's a difference between playing and playing games. The former is an act of joy, the latter — an act. ↗

— Vera Nazarian

#acting #artifice #falsehood #game #games

Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying. ↗

— Mikhail Bakunin

#equality #fraud #freedom #lie #lying

After we passed a few more houses, the street ceased to mantain any pretense of urbanity, like a man returning to his little village who, piece by piece, strips off his Sunday best, slowly changing back into a peasant as he gets closer to his home. ↗

— Bruno Schulz

#pretense #urbanity #change

Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Theophrastus was right. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#knowledge #learning #mystery #nature #pretense