43 Quotes About Pretence

There are many assumptions that are made throughout life. It can be easy to assume one thing based on what may appear true in another. However, it is all based on a potential falsehood. Here is a look at some great quotes about pretence that sites at the center of any claim that is made.

“A painter’s hand has a thirst for thieving, it steals from heaven and makes a gift to the memories of men, it feigns eternity and it delights in this pretence almost as if it had created rules of its own, more durable and more profoundly true.”

“Abortion is the only event that modern liberals think too violent and obscene to portray on TV.”

“All in the golden afternoon Full leisurely we glide; For both our oars, with little skill, By little arms are plied, While little hands make vain pretence Our wanderings to guide.”

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

“All zeal for a reform, that gives offence To peace and charity, is mere pretence.”

“Anything can become a children’s book if you give it to a child…Children are actually the best (and worst) audience for literature because they have no patience with pretence”

“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.”

“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.”

“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe.”

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

“Don’t be taken in when they paternally pat you on the shoulder and say that there’s no inequality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight.”

“Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth.”

“Fish is held out to be one of the greatest luxuries of the table and not only necessary, but even indispensable at all dinners where there is any pretence of excellence or fashion.”

“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.”

“How far does a pretence of feeling, maintained with absolute conviction, become authentic?”

“I generalized rashly: That is what kills political writing, this absurd pretence that you are delivering a great utterance. You never do. You are just a puzzled man making notes about what you think.”

“I love the idea of spies in love. How would it work between two people who were so programmed to lie and be suspicious, who have a whole life based on pretence?”

“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.”

“In a society that restricts individual freedoms and violates human rights, anything that calls itself creative or independent is a pretence.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“Most people love you for who you pretend to be.”

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

“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.”

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

“Pretences go a great way with men that take fair words and magisterial looks for current payment.”

“Simplicity is oftenest an adroit pretence.”

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

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

“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.”

“The conquest of the earth… is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only… not a sentimental pretence but an idea.”

“The divide of race has been America’s constant curse. Each new wave of immigrants gives new targets to old prejudices. Prejudice and contempt, cloaked in the pretense of religious or political conviction, are no different.”

“The fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of knowing the unknown.”

“The higher the rank the less pretence, because there is less to pretend to.”

“The pretence that numbers are not the humble creation of man, but are the exacting language of the Universe and therefore possess the secret of all things, is comforting, terrifying and mesmeric.”

“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.”

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

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

“Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory.”

“You see with your eyes. This means you can be misled by charm, by outward appearance. By webs of glamour, by surface pretences. I do not see with my eyes. I see good and I see evil. Nothing else.”

Not all assumptions are created equal. In some cases, assumptions may be good for an individual or a specific scenario.