#pretense

The pious pretense that evil does not exist only makes it vague, enormous and menacing. ↗

— Aleister Crowley

#enormous #evil #exist #makes #menacing

Sex is full of lies. The body tries to tell the truth. But, it's usually too battered with rules to be heard, and bound with pretenses so it can hardly move. We cripple ourselves with lies. ↗

— Jim Morrison

#body #bound #cripple #full #hardly

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

I despise the rituals of fake friendship. I wish we could just claw each other's eyes out and call it a day; instead we put on huge radiant smiles and spout compliments until our teeth hurt from the saccharine sweetness of it all. ↗

— Jody Gehrman

#fake #friends #friendship #humor #pretense

[E]verywhere I'm looking at kids, adults mostly don't seem to like them, not even the parents do. They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear. ↗

— Emma Donoghue

#caring #children #cuteness #hypocrisy #kids

Men wholly bent on wordly treasures were the dupes of their own passions, rather than deceived by the writings or pretenses of those who claimed to be Alchemists. ↗

— Ethan A. Hitchcock

#bent #claimed #deceived #dupes #men

Most of the confidence which I appear to feel, especially when influenced by noon wine, is only a pretense. ↗

— Tennessee Williams

#confidence #especially #feel #i #influenced

If there is no hell, a good many preachers are obtaining money under false pretenses. ↗

— Billy Sunday

#good #hell #many #money #obtaining

The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend! ↗

— Edith Wharton

#family #friends #insincerity #kindness #loneliness