A Quote by Eric Hoffer

There are many who have grave scruples about deceiving but think it as nothing to deceive themselves.

Eric Hoffer

Quote Topics

About Deceive Deceiving Grave Many Nothing Scruples Themselves Think

Quote Author

Eric Hoffer
American - Writer
July 25, 1898 - May 21, 1983

I often had no scruples about deceiving nitwits and scoundrels and fools when I found it necessary. ...We avenge intelligence when we deceive a fool, and... deceiving a fool is an exploit worthy of an intelligent man. What has infused my very blood with an unconquerable hatred of the whole tribe of fools from the day of my birth is that I become a fool myself when I am in their company.

Giacomo Casanova

It is best, if possible, to deceive no one; for he that ... begins by deceiving others, will end ... by deceiving himself.

Charles Caleb Colton

Men who cannot deceive others are very often successful at deceiving themselves.

Samuel Johnson

Cheats easily believe others as bad as themselves; there is no deceiving them, nor do they long deceive.

Jean de la Bruyere

To deceive gracefully is the very essence of social life. One must start by deceiving oneself, and make a lifelong practice of deceiving others; if one does it well enough, in time one might even become an artist, the greatest illusionists of all.

Elspeth Huxley

I think people deceive themselves about themselves, particularly as they get older.

Jeanette Winterson

Human beings seem to have an almost unlimited capacity to deceive themselves, and to deceive themselves into taking their own lies for truth.

R. D. Laing

Lot of stories in deceit, how characters deceive other people, but most of all, I think, how they deceive themselves. We're not as tricky as we think we are.

Peter Orner

even when nothing is happening, nothing stands still. ... I am not a rock, but a river; people deceive themselves by seeing me as a rock. Or is it I who deceive them and pretend that I am a rock when I am a river?

Nina Berberova

We often shed tears that deceive ourselves after deceiving others.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Men who can succeed in deceiving no one else, will succeed at last in deceiving themselves.

Anthony Trollope

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.

Eric Hoffer

Those who deceive others, deceive themselves, as they will find at last, to their cost.

Matthew Henry

He who has made it a practice to lie and deceive his father, will be the most daring in deceiving others.

Horace

Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves - and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either.