#deceit

You must remember, my dear lady, the most important rule of any successful illusion: First, the people must want to believe in it. ↗

— Libba Bray

#deceit #success

Alright,” he admitted, “So I’m not everything you’d hoped for. But really, what man can ever live up to any woman’s terribly high expectations?” This got her attention. She almost stood up to face him, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Leaning forward, she retorted, “Expecting a man to respect you, to be honest with you, and, oh yes, to not be a murderer! I don’t think those are overly high expectations!” He shrugged, casually excusing his faults. “Nobody’s perfect.” “Gemdorin, what do you want?” she asked, exasperated. He plainly stated his desire. “I want you. ↗

— Richelle E. Goodrich

#deceit #desire #eena #expectations #love

The angel destroyed me! He seduced me with a pure voice, spoke kind words, and stroked my hair to lower my guard, to make me trust him, to trick me! He sullied my body, my voice, my heart; remade me as a terrifying monster; turned me into his companion! The angel was a disfigured phantom wearing a mask! ↗

— Mizuki Nomura

#love #seduction #love

Never judge someone by their relatives. ↗

— Charles Martin

#family #past-history #relationships #family

What did one see if one looked in any depth into the world of this writer's fiction? Elegant self-control concealing from the world's eyes until the very last moment a state of inner disintegration and biological decay; sallow ugliness, sensuously marred and worsted, which nevertheless is able to fan its smouldering concupiscence to a pallid impotence, which from the glowing depths of the spirit draws strength to cast down a whole proud people at the foot of the Cross and set its own foot upon them as well; gracious poise and composure in the empty austere service of form; the false, dangerous life of the born deceiver, his ambition and his art which lead so soon to exhaustion --- ↗

— Thomas Mann

#decay #deceit #fiction #form #writers

The only thing more frustrating than slanderers is those foolish enough to listen to them. ↗

— Criss Jami

#deceived #envy #false #falsehood #fool

God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another. ↗

— William Shakespeare

#falsehood #shakespeare

They were not unfortunate girls who, as outcasts or in the belief that they were cast out by society, grieved wholesomely and intensely and, once in a while at times when the heart was too full, ventilated it in hate or forgiveness. No visible change took place in them; they lived in the accustomed context, were respected as always, and yet they were changed, almost unaccountably to themselves and incomprehensibly to others. Their lives were not cracked or broken, as others' were, but were bent into themselves; lost to others, they futilely sought to find themselves. ↗

— Søren Kierkegaard

#life-lessons #love #passion #seduction #temptation

Deceit dispels the boredom of the Absolute. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#boredom #deceit #dejan-stojanovic #dispelling #literature

I find it most offensive that the character of Reason, whom [Jean den Meun (author of the Romance of the Rose)] himself calls the daughter of God, should put forth such a statement as ... where she says by way of a proverb that "in the war of Love it is better to deceive than be deceived." And indeed I dare say that in making that statement Jean den Meun's Reason denied her Father, for the doctrine He gave was altogether different. ↗

— Christine de Pizan

#deceit #dishonesty #falsehood #love #reason