#pretense

I didn't come from any kind of academic background, but I lived in a college town and I knew people who weren't without pretense. There was this idea in the town that if something was European it would be good. ↗

— Sarah Vowell

#any #background #college #come #european

So may the outward shows be least themselves: The world is still deceived with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being seasoned with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. ↗

— William Shakespeare

#falsehood #law #ornament #pretense #religion

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there. ↗

— Eric Hoffer

#emptiness #evil #greatest #hardest #hide

The pious pretense that evil does not exist only makes it vague, enormous and menacing. ↗

— Aleister Crowley

#enormous #evil #exist #makes #menacing

Say what you want to say about the rest of his presidency, including his tone-deaf response to Katrina and a war waged in Iraq on false pretenses, Bush connected with Americans in the aftermath of 9/11 because he looked as frail and unforgiving as we felt. ↗

— Ron Fournier

#aftermath #because #bush #connected #false

You must not under any pretense allow your mind to dwell on any thought that is not positive, constructive, optimistic, kind. ↗

— Emmet Fox

#allow #any #constructive #dwell #kind

Frankly - and believe me, I say this without any pretense - when I see the road I've taken, I have to say that thanks to good luck, because without good luck one can do nothing, I've come out pretty well. ↗

— James MacArthur

#because #believe #come #frankly #good

Sex is full of lies. The body tries to tell the truth. But, it's usually too battered with rules to be heard, and bound with pretenses so it can hardly move. We cripple ourselves with lies. ↗

— Jim Morrison

#body #bound #cripple #full #hardly

The crafty person is always in danger; and when they think they walk in the dark, all their pretenses are transparent. ↗

— John Tillotson

#crafty #danger #dark #person #pretenses

Comics, at least in periodical form, exist almost entirely free of any pretense; the critical world of art hardly touches them, and they're 100% personal. ↗

— Chris Ware

#any #art #comics #critical #entirely