Quotes on Pretence

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.

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!

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.

And then he danced,-all foreigners excel the serious Angels in the eloquence of pantomime;-he danced, I say, right well, with emphasis, and a'so with good sense-a thing in footing indispensable: he danced without theatrical pretence, not like a ballet-master in the van of his drill'd nymphs, but like a gentleman.

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...

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

Enlightenment is a destructive process. It_x000D_ has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the_x000D_ crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing_x000D_ through the facade of pretence. It's the_x000D_ complete eradication of everything we_x000D_ imagined to be true.

True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long.

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

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

Perfection of character is this: to live each day as if it were your last, without frenzy, without apathy, without pretence.

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

As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

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