Knavery is the best defense against a knave. — Plutarch
Knavery seems to be so much a the striking feature of its inhabitants that it may not in the end be an evil that they will become aliens to this kingdom. — King George III
Cupid is a knavish lad, Thus to make poor females mad. — William Shakespeare
Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest. — Benjamin Franklin
Think about the fool who by his virtue can be found in a most unusual situation playing jester to the clown. — Gordon Lightfoot
A dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. — Johnny Depp
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. — Ovid
A real scoundrel turned up and they took off their hats to him — Greek Proverbs
A tailor, though a man of upright dealing,-- True but for lying,--honest but for stealing,-- Did fall one day extremely sick by chance And on the sudden was in wondrous trance. — John Harington
He played the king as if afraid someone else would play the ace. — John Mason Brown
The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,
All on a summer day:
The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,
And took them quite away! — Lewis Carroll
Though we may not desire to detect fraud, we must not, on that account, endeavor to be insensible of it, for, as cunning is a crime, so is duplicity a fault, and if men dread knaves, they also despise fools. — Norm MacDonald
The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, all on a hot summer's day. The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts. The mad Queen said, "Off with his head! Off with his head! Off with his head!" Well... that's too bad... no more heads to cut. — Jun Mochizuki
Credulity is always a ridiculous, often a dangerous failing: it has made of many a clever man, a fool; and of many a good man, a knave. — Frances Wright
A rich man is an honest man--no thanks to him; for he would be a double knave, to cheat mankind when he had no need of it: he has no occasion to press upon his integrity, nor so much as to touch upon the borders of dishonesty. — Daniel Defoe
Pay attention to minute particulars. Take care of the little ones. Generalization and abstraction are the plea of the hypocrite, scoundrel, and knave. — William Blake
I agree that one can't dispense with the reins and the whip altogether, for knaves find their way even into literature, but no thinking will discover a better police for literature than the critics and the author's own conscience. — Anton Chekhov
To limit the press is to insult a nation; to prohibit reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves: such a prohibition ought to fill them with disdain. — Claude Adrien Helvetius
Hanifs (Muslims) are stumbling, Christians all astray
Jews wildered, Magians far on error’s way.
We mortals are composed of two great schools
Enlightened knaves or else religious fools. — Al-Maʿarri
In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable. — Lord Chesterfield
Most Men are Cowards, all Men should be Knaves.
The Difference lies, as far as I can see,
Not in the thing it self, but the Degree. — John Wilmot
History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools. — Ambrose Bierce
The heart never grows better by age; I fear rather worse, always harder. A young liar will be an old one, and a young knave will only be a greater knave as he grows older. — Lord Chesterfield
Negro equality, Fudge!! How long in the Government of a God great enough to make and maintain this Universe, shall there continue to be knaves to vend and fools to gulp, so low a piece of demagoguism as this? — Abraham Lincoln
Avoid the politic, the factious fool,
The busy, buzzing, talking harden'd knave;
The quaint smooth rogue that sins against his reason,
Calls saucy loud sedition public zeal,
And mutiny the dictates of his spirit. — Thomas Otway
The credulity of dupes is as inexhaustible as the invention of knaves. — Edmund Burke
I realized early on that the academy and the literary world alike - and I don't think there really is a distinction between the two - are always dominated by fools, knaves, charlatans and bureaucrats. — Harold Bloom
For my part, if a man must needs be a knave I would have him a debonair knave... It makes your sin no worse as I conceive, to do it à la mode and stylishly. — Anthony Hope
Knaves starve not in the land of fools. — Charles Churchill
The life even of a just man is a round of petty frauds; that of a knave a series of greater. We degrade life by our follies and vices, and then complain that the unhappiness which is only their accompaniment is inherent in the constitution of things. — Christian Nestell Bovee
A crafty knave needs no broker. — Horace
Water of life is gonna flow again/changed from the blood of heroes and knaves/Word mercy's gonna have a new meaning/ when we are judged by the children of our slaves. — Bruce Cockburn
We are no more free agents than the queen of clubs when she victoriously takes prisoner the knave of hearts. — Mary Wortley Montagu
A Whig is properly what is called a Trimmer -- that is, a coward to both sides of the question, who dare not be a knave nor an honest man, but is a sort of whiffing, shuffling, cunning, silly, contemptible, unmeaning negation of the two. — William Hazlitt
The same ambition can destroy or save, and make a patriot as it makes a knave. — Alexander Pope
You will be amused when you see that I have more than once deceived without the slightest qualm of conscience, both knaves and fools. — Giacomo Casanova
The honest Man takes Pains, and then enjoys Pleasures; the knave takes Pleasure, and then suffers Pains. — Benjamin Franklin
Titles are marks of honest men, and wise; The fool or knave that wears a title lies. — Edward Young
It should seem that indolence itself would incline a person to be honest, as it requires infinitely greater pains and contrivance to be a knave. — William Shenstone
Revenge is a debt, in the paying of which the greatest knave is honest and sincere, and, so far as he is able, punctual. — Charles Caleb Colton
He that dies a martyr proves that he was not a knave, but by no means that he was not a fool. — Charles Caleb Colton
Knaves will thrive when honest plainness knows not how to live. — James Shirley
The worst of all knaves are those who can mimic their former honesty. — Johann Kaspar Lavater
Now I will show myselfTo have more of the serpent than the dove;That is--more knave than fool. — Christopher Marlowe
In Conclusion
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