Pretence Quotes

In the land of "I know," there is always competitiveness, jealousy, pretence, pride and arrogance. It is an aggressive realm - the realm of the ego. I say refuse citizenship. In the land of "I dont know," the inhabitants move without conflict and are naturally quiet, happy and peaceful. The wise stay here.

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed;

as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.

Enlightenment is a destructive process.

It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretence. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.

Abortion is the only event that modern liberals think too violent and obscene to portray on TV. This is not because they are squeamish or prudish. It is because if people knew what Abortion really looked like, it would destroy their pretence that it is a civilized answer to the problem of what to do about unwanted babies.

And hast thou sworn on every slight pretence, Till perjuries are common as bad pence, While thousands, careless of the damning sin, Kiss the book's outside, who ne'er look'd within?

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

Jealousy, that dragon which slays love under the pretence of keeping it alive.

Live each day as if it were your last for some day it will be.

All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretences did I cheat myself. Surely a curious thing. That I should innocently take a bad half-crown of somebody else's manufacture, is reasonable enough; but that I should knowingly reckon the spurious coin of my own make, as good money!

Most people love you for who you pretend to be.

Sincerity is impossible, unless it pervade the whole being, and the pretence of it saps the very foundation of character.

Sincerity is impossible, unless it pervades the whole being, and the pretence of it saps the very foundation of character.

That’s what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is.

...Most people love you for who you pretend to be....To keep their love, you keep pretending - performing. You get to love your pretense...It’s true, we’re locked in an image, an act...

Babies who have not yet been taught to speak any language are the only race of the earth, the race of man: all the rest is pretence, what we call civilization, hatred, fear, desire for strength.

Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infinitely more advantage than any victory with all its expence.

It is not poverty so much as pretence that harasses a ruined man--the struggle between a proud mind and an empty purse--the keeping up a hollow show that must soon come to an end. Have the courage to appear poor, and you disarm poverty of its sharpest sting.

Malice can always find a mark to shoot at, and a pretence to fire.

As a nation we began by declaring that all me are created equal.

We now practically read it, all men are created equal except Negroes.

Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory, and the truth of every passion wants some pretence to make it live.

True glory takes root, and even spreads;

all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long.

Friends make pretence of following to the grave but before one is in it, their minds are turned and making the best of their way back to life and living people and things they understand.

After Mengistu consolidated his power in 1978, his personality gradually began to change. His ability to listen and his patience faded away. We could now see these qualities were pretences only; he had been putting on his best behavior in his bid for support.

Old men and comets have been reverenced for the same reason: their long beards, and pretences to foretell events.

Let no man turn aside, ever so slightly, from the broad path of honour, on the plausible pretence that he is justified by the goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means.

Civilization is a conspiracy. Modern life is the silent compact of comfortable folk to keep up pretences.

In all highly civilised communities Pretence is prominent, and sooner or later invades the regions of Literature.

The Relation we bear to the Wisdom of the Father, the Son of His Love, gives us indeed a dignity which otherwise we have no pretence to. It makes us something, something considerable even in God's Eyes.

You may charge me with murder--or want of sense-- (We are all of us weak at times): But the slightest approach to a false pretence Was never among my crimes!

Some pretences daunt and discourage us, while others raise us to a brisk assurance.

All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretences did I cheat myself.

Others indeed may talk, and write, and fight about liberty, and make an outward pretence to it; but the free-thinker alone is truly free.

The job of an actor is disclosure, not pretence!

That's what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is.

. . . Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.