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Pretense Quotes

Browse 329 quotes about Pretense.

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Pretense Quotes

“Man is always inclined to regard the small circle in which he lives as the center of the world and to make his particular, private life the standard of the universe and to make his particular, private life the standard of the universe. But he must give up this vain pretense, this petty provincial way of thinking and judging.”

ThinkingMenWorldWayGivingUniverseParticularJudgingGiving UpStandardsRegardCirclesVainPettyPrivate LifeWay Of ThinkingPretenseCenter Of The World
Book:An essay on man: an introduction to a philosophy of human culture
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“You've been somebody long enough. You spent the first half of your life becoming somebody. Now you can work on becoming nobody, which is really somebody. For when you become nobody there is no tension, no pretense, no one trying to be anyone or anything. The natural state of the mind shines through unobstructed - and the natural state of the mind is pure love.”

TryingMindFirstsLongStatesEnoughNaturalHalfBecomingPureShiningTensionPretensePure Love
Author:Ram Dass
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“I don’t claim to know an over-arching ‘Meaning of Life,’ but I do operate under the understanding that life should not be lived under the pretense that it is simply a test propagated by an invisible, intangible, Creator-God. And it should not be spent identifying with religious traditions and organized groups that, historically, have been at the root of a tremendous amount of oppression and violence.”

KnowsShouldHas BeensUnderstandingReligiousViolenceGroupsAmountTraditionRootsTestsClaimsCreatorInvisibleOppressionMeaning Of LifeOrganizedPretenseIdentifyingIntangibleReligious TraditionsCreator God
Author:David G. McAfee
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“Perhaps there is no other knowing than the mere competence of the act. If at the heart of one's being, there is no self to which one ought to be true, then sincerity is simply nerve; it lies in the unabashed vigor of the pretense. But pretense is only pretense when it is assumed that the act is not true to the agent. Find the agent.”

IfsHeartSelfTruthLyingKnowingOughtMereBeing TrueAgentsNervesSincerityCompetencePretenseBeing ThereVigor
Book:The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness
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“Probably no one of us has the True Religion. But all of us together - if we are allowed to be free - are discovering ways of conversing about the great mysteries. The pretense to know all the answers to the deepest mysteries is, of course, the grossest fraud. And any people who declare a Jihad, a holy war on unbelievers - those who do not share their believers' pretended omniscience - are enemies of thinking men and woman and of civilization. I see religion as only a way of asking unanswerable questions, of sharing the joy of a community of quest, and solacing one another in our ignorance.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsMenWayWarTogetherJoyReligionCoursesCommunityAnswersEnemyMysteryShareIgnoranceHolyCivilizationAskingBelieverFraudDiscoveringQuestsPretenseTrue ReligionJihadUnbelieversThinking ManOmniscienceHoly War
Author:Daniel J. Boorstin
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“We must put up with our clothes as they are - they have their reason for existing. They are on us to expose us - to advertise what we wear them to conceal. They are a sign; a sign of insincerity; a sign of suppressed vanity; a pretense that we desire gorgeous colors and the graces of harmony and form; and we put them on to propagate that lie and back it up.”

ReasonFormLyingDesireGraceColorClothesHarmonyVanityGorgeousPretenseInsincerity
Book:Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend
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“There are a set of men who go about making purchases upon credit, and buying estates they have not wherewithal to pay for; and having done this, their next step is to fill the newspapers with paragraphs of the scarcity of money and the necessity of a paper emission, then to have a legal tender under the pretense of supporting its credit, and when out, to depreciate it as fast as they can, get a deal of it for a little price, and cheat their creditors; and this is the concise history of paper money schemes.”

MenLittlesDoneNextDealsPayStepsPaperCreditNewspapersMaking MoneyBuyingSchemesCheatEstatesPretenseEmissionsParagraphScarcityNext StepsCreditorsConcisePaper MoneyDepreciate
Book:Brief sketch of the life of Thomas Paine. Common sense. Epistle to Quakers. The crisis. Public good. Letter to the Abbe Raynal. Dissertations on government, the affairs of the bank, and paper money. Miscellaneous
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“Our senior officers knew the war was going badly. Yet they bowed to groupthink pressure and kept up pretenses. ...Many of my generation, the career captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels seasoned in that war, vowed that when our turn came to call the shots, we would not quietly acquiesce in halfhearted warfare for half-baked reasons that the American people could not understand.”

PeopleWarReasonGovernmentTurnsHalfCareersGenerationsAuthorityMajorsShotsPressureOfficersWarfareCaptainsSeniorPretenseMy GenerationColonelsLieutenantsGroupthink
Book:My American Journey
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“When other people first became aware of the cow, they expressed concern and anxiety. They suggested strategies for getting the animal out of Molly's parlor: remedies and doctors and procedures, some mainstream and some New Age. They related anecdotes of friends who had removed their own cows in one way or another. But after a while they had exhausted their suggestions. Then they usually began to pretend that the cow wasn't there, and they preferred for Molly to go along with the pretense.”

PeopleWayFirstsAgeAnimalAnxietyConcernDoctorsStrategyOne WayRelatedCowsMainstreamRemedyExhaustedSuggestionsNew AgeProceduresPretenseAnecdotesParlor
Book:The Last Resort
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“The most comprehensive formulation of therapeutic goals is the striving for wholeheartedness: to be without pretense, to be emotionally sincere, to be able to put the whole of oneself into one's feelings, one's work, one's beliefs.”

InspirationalSelfWholeFeelingsAbleBeliefGoalStriveOneselfSincereComprehensivePretenseTherapeuticWholeheartedness
Book:Our Inner Conflicts: A CONSTRUCTIVE THEORY OF NEUROSIS
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“Basic anxiety can be roughly described as a feeling of being small, insignificant, helpless, deserted or endangered in a world that is out to abuse, cheat, humiliate, betray, envy... . And special in this is the child's feeling that the parents' love, their Christian charity, honesty, generosity ... may be only a pretense.”

WorldMayChildrenFeelingsChristianParentSpecialHonestyAnxietyAbuseCharityEnvyGenerosityBetrayHelplessCheatInsignificantPretenseDesertedHumiliateParents Love
Author:Karen Horney
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