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Deception Quotes

Browse 1380 quotes about Deception.

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Deception Quotes

“Like Karl Kraus [Wittgenstein], was seldom pleased by what he saw of the institutions of men, and the idiom of the passerby mostly offended his ear - particularly when they happened to speak philosophically; and like Karl Kraus, he suspected that the institutions could not but be corrupt if the idiom of the race was confused, presumptuous, and vacuous, a fabric of nonsense, untruth, deception, and self-deception.”

IfsMenSelfSpeakRaceSawsHappenedEarsInstitutionsDeceptionConfusedNonsenseFabricOffendedSelf DeceptionUntruthIdiomPresumptuousVacuousPasserby
Author:Thomas Szasz
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“If, however, a government refrains from regulations and allows matters to take their course, essential commodities soon attain a level of price out of the reach of all but the rich, the worthlessness of the money becomes apparent, and the fraud upon the public can be concealed no longer.”

IfsMatterGovernmentCoursesLevelsMoneyRichEssentialsEconomicsSocialismDeceptionFraudRegulationCommodityBankingTaxationConcealedRefrainWorthlessness
Book:The Economic Consequences of the Peace: The classic text on the Treaty of Versailles and post war Europe
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“Man is an evasive beast, given to cultivating strange notions about himself. He is humiliated by his simian ancestry, and tries to deny his animal nature, to persuade himself that he is not limited by its weaknesses nor concerned in its fate. And this impulse may be harmless, when it is genuine. But what are we to say when we see the formulas of heroic self-deception made use of by unheroic self-indulgence?”

MenTryingMayMadeSelfUseGivenAnimalFateStrangeWeaknessConcernedNotionDenyGenuineDeceptionImpulseBeastFormulasHeroicIndulgenceSelf DeceptionAncestryHumiliatedCultivatingSelf Indulgence
Author:Upton Sinclair
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“In civilized life, where the happiness, and indeed almost the existence, of man depends so much upon the opinion of his fellow-men, he is constantly acting a studied part. The bold and peculiar traits of native character are refined away or softened down by the levelling influence of what is termed good-breeding, and he practises so many petty deceptions and affects so many generous sentiments for the purposes of popularity that it is difficult to distinguish his real from his artificial character.”

MenRealCharacterPurposeDifficultActingExistenceOpinionInfluenceDependsFellowsDeceptionGenerousNativeCivilizedSentimentsPeculiarArtificialTraitsPopularityPettyFellow ManRefinedBreedingPractiseGood Breeding
Book:The Complete Short Stories of Washington Irving: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveler, The Alhambra, Woolfert’s Roost & The Crayon Papers Collections (Illustrated): The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, Old Christmas, The Voyage, Roscoe, The Widow’s Retinue, An Old Soldier, Mountjoy, Don Juan, Woolfert’s Roost, Tales of The Alhambra and many more
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“It is easy to become the dupe of a deferred purpose, of the promise the future can never keep, and I had fallen into the meanest type of self-deception in making myself believe that all this was in preparation for great things to come.”

BelieveSelfPurposeEasyTypePromiseGreat ThingsPreparationDeceptionFallenSelf DeceptionDupesHull House
Book:The Selected Papers of Jane Addams: Vol. 2: Venturing into Usefulness
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“The belief that happiness has to be deserved has led to centuries of pain, guilt, and deception. So firmly have we clung to this single, illusory belief that we've almost forgotten the real truth about happiness. So busy are we trying to deserve happiness that we no longer have much time for ideas such as: Happiness is natural, happiness is a birthright, happiness is free, happiness is a choice, happiness is within, and happiness is being. The moment you believe that happiness has to be deserved, you must toil forevermore.”

TryingBelieveIdeasRealMomentsPainChoicesBeliefNaturalCenturyDeserveGuiltBusyForgottenDeceptionToilBirthrightIllusoryHappiness Is A ChoiceReal Truth
Book:Happiness Now!: Timeless Wisdom for Feeling Good Fast
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“The phrase, the world wants to be deceived, has become truer than had ever been intended. People are not only, as the saying goes, falling for the swindle; if it guarantees them even the most fleeting gratification they desire a deception which is nonetheless transparent to them. They force their eyes shut and voice approval, in a kind of self-loathing, for what is meted out to them, knowing fully the purpose for which it is manufactured. Without admitting it they sense that their lives would be completely intolerable as soon as they no longer clung to satisfactions which are none at all.”

PeopleIfsWorldWantKindSelfWould BeEyeDesirePurposeFallForceVoiceKnowingSatisfactionDeceptionPhrasesGuaranteesApprovalFleetingDeceivedTransparentGratificationLoathingAdmittingSelf Loathing
Book:The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture
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“In the form of the oeuvre, the actual circumstances are placed in another dimension where the given reality shows itself as that which it is. Thus it tells the truth about itself; its language ceases to be that of deception, ignorance, and submission. Fiction calls the facts by their name and their reign collapses; fiction subverts everyday experience and shows it to be mutilated and false.”

FactsShowsRealityFormNamesLanguageGivenFictionIgnoranceCircumstancesEverydayCeaseDeceptionDimensionsTelling The TruthCollapseReignSubmissionReality Shows
Book:One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society
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“We are now considering legislation based on statistics that include name-calling at public rallies as crimes. Are we going on to the school yards of this country and when two kids get angry with each other and call each other names -- what are we going to do, cart them over to the reformatory or add them to the list of 'hate crimes' perpetrators? This is ridiculous.”

TwoCountryKidsSchoolHateNamesCrimeCallingSpeechAngryAddCorruptionListsRidiculousDeceptionStatisticsConsideringYardsLegislationHate CrimeCartsPerpetratorsName Calling
Author:Jesse Helms
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“Machiavelli says that if as a ruler you accept that your every action must pass moral scrutiny, you will without fail be defeated by an opponent who submits to no such moral test. To hold on to power, you have not only to master the crafts of deception and treachery but to be prepared to use them where necessary.”

IfsUseActionAcceptingMoralFailingMastersTestsPreparedCraftsDeceptionOpponentsRulersSubmitDefeatedBe PreparedScrutinyTreachery
Author:J. M. Coetzee
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“To combat depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection -- a procedure which can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end.”

WantMeanEndsSufferingEvilEconomicsCrisisProductionsCreditCuresDeceptionCombatExpansionSevereBankingProceduresVery MeanMisdirection
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“The reinvention of American culture as purely the self catapulted Las Vegas to prominence. The city took sin and made it choice -- a sometimes ambiguous choice, but choice nonetheless. Combined with a visionary approach to experience that melded Hollywood and Americans' taste for comfort and self-deception, Las Vegas grew into the last American frontier city, as foreign at times as Prague but as quintessential as Peoria. In Las Vegas, you can choose your fantasy; in the rest of America, you don't always get to pick.”

MadeSelfSometimesLastsAmericaChoicesCultureSinCitiesFantasyGrewComfortTasteApproachPicksHollywoodMade ItDeceptionFrontiersAmerican CultureVegasLas VegasVisionariesSelf DeceptionAmbiguousReinventionQuintessentialProminencePraguePeoria
Author:Hal Rothman
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“Ruthven surmised that he had hit upon some of the central deceptions which had wrecked him and reduced him and so many of his colleagues to this condition. To surmise was not to conquer, of course; he was as helpless as ever but there was a dim liberation in seeing how he had been lied to, and he felt that at least he could take one thing from the terrible years through which he had come: he was free of self-delusion.”

YearsSelfCoursesFeltSeeingOne ThingConditionsTerribleConquerDeceptionLiberationDelusionHelplessColleaguesLiedSelf Delusion
Book:Breakfast in the Ruins
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“There is no deception on the part of the woman, where a man bewilders himself: if he deludes his own wits, I can certainly acquit the women. Whatever man allows his mind to dwell upon the imprint his imagination has foolishly taken of women, is fanning the flames within himself -- and, since the woman knows nothing about it, she is not to blame. For if a man incites himself to drown, and will not restrain himself, it is not the water's fault.”

IfsKnowsMenMindI CanWaterImaginationTakenBlameFaultsWitDeceptionFlames
Author:John Gower
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“It is probably true that almost all atheists stand for the values of reason and freethought. I will attempt to put these values in more substantial terms. There is the belief that inquiry and doubt are essential checks against deception, self deception, and error. There is the belief that logic and the scientific method is the only way the world can arrive at an agreement on the truth about anything.”

WorldWaySelfReasonValuesBeliefTermDoubtAtheismEssentialsLogicMethodErrorsAtheistChecksDeceptionAgreementInquirySelf DeceptionScientific Method
Author:Richard Carrier
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“An ideology is a complex of ideas or notions which represents itself to the thinker as an absolute truth for the interpretation of the world and his situation within it; it leads the thinker to accomplish an act of self-deception for the purpose of justification, obfuscation and evasion in some sense or other to his advantage.”

WorldIdeasSelfPurposeSituationAtheismAdvantageAbsolutesComplexesNotionAccomplishPositive AtheismIdeologyDeceptionInterpretationThinkerJustificationSelf DeceptionAbsolute TruthEvasionObfuscation
Author:Karl Jaspers
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“Homo religiosus invents religious symbols, which he venerates and worships to save him from facing the finality of his death and dissolution. He devises paradise fictions to provide succor and support... In acts of supreme self-deception, at various times and in various places he has been willing to profess belief in the most incredible myths because of what they have promised him.”

Has BeensSelfBeliefReligiousFictionSupportAtheismWillingWorshipIncrediblesVariousPositive AtheismMythSupremeSymbolsDeceptionParadiseSelf DeceptionDissolutionFinality
Author:Paul Kurtz
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“Deception, flattering, lying, deluding, talking behind the back, putting up a false front, living in borrowed splendor, wearing a mask, hiding behind convention, playing a role for others and for oneself -- in short, a continuous fluttering around the solitary flame of vanity -- is so much the rule and the law among men that there is almost nothing which is less comprehensible than how an honest and pure drive for truth could have arisen among them.”

MenLawLyingBehindsTalkingRolesHonestFrontsPureOneselfVanityDeceptionFlamesMaskHidingConventionsSolitaryBorrowedSplendorFlatteringFlutteringWearing A Mask
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche (Illustrated): Friedrich Nietzsche
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