Plutarch
Philosopher, Historian
"Knavery is the best defense against a knave."
Knavery quotes
Knavery
27 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Ovid
Poet
"Cunning leads to knavery. It is but a step from one to the other, and that very slippery. Only lying makes the difference; add that to cunning, and it is knavery."
Voltaire
Philosopher, Writer
"Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool."
Abraham Lincoln
Political Leader
"Knavery and flattery are blood relations."
Charles Churchill
Poet, Playwright
"Knaves starve not in the land of fools."
Explore further
Topics related to Knavery
Browse quotes that often appear alongside knavery — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Knavery quotes (page 1 of 2)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Fashion--a word which knaves and fools may use, Their knavery and folly to excuse."
Read quote
7 likes
"I should think this a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it; knavery cannot, sure, hide himself in such reverence."
Read quote
7 likes
"Our own distrust gives a fair pretence for the knavery of other people."
Read quote
7 likes
"Zeno first started that doctrine, that knavery is the best defence against a knave."
Read quote
6 likes
"Knavery's plain face is never seen till used."
Read quote
6 likes
"There's never a villain dwelling in all Denmark But he's an arrant knave."
Read quote
6 likes
"Knaves will thrive when honest plainness knows not how to live."
Read quote
6 likes
"Even knaves may be made good for something."
Read quote
6 likes
"There are cases in which a man would be ashamed not to have been imposed upon. There is a confidence necessary to human intercourse, and without which men are often more injured by their own suspicions than they would be by the perfidy of others."
Read quote
5 likes
"It is more rational to suspect knavery and folly than to discount, at a stroke, everything that past experience has taught me about the way things actually work"
Read quote
4 likes