"The fundamental factor of self-deception is this constant desire to be something in this world and in the world hereafter."
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Deception quotes
Deception
337 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Deception quotes (page 2 of 17)
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"All warfare is based on deception. There is no place where espionage is not used. Offer the enemy bait to lure him."
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"Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception."
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"Those who think their intellect will keep them from deception are already deceived."
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"Courage is the willingness to speak the truth about what you see and to own what you say."
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"A lie cannot live."
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"What one has most to work and struggle for in painting is to do the work with a great amount of labour and sweat in such a way that it may afterward appear, however much it was laboured upon, to have been done almost quickly and almost without any labour, and very easily, although it was not."
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"You can hide as cleverly as you like, but in the final analysis mimicry is deception, pure and simple. It doesn't solve a thing."
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"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live."
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"It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set."
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"Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep."
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"When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people."
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"Compromise is the door through which deception enters."
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"As in everything else, I must start with myself. That is: in all circumstances try to be decent, just, tolerant, and understanding, and at the same time try to resist corruption and deception. In other words, I must do my utmost to act in harmony with my conscience and my better self."
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"There is no killing the suspicion that deceit has once begotten."
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"Man loves the marvelous. It has an irresistible charm for him. He is always ready to leave that with which he is familiar to pursue vain inventions. He lends himself to his own deception."
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"Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred."
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"I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are IMPOSSIBLE."
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"Don't tell me of deception; a lie is a lie, whether it be a lie to the eye or a lie to the ear."
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"All war is deception."
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