Montesquieu Quotes

No man is so much a fool as not to have wit enough sometimes to be a knave; nor any so cunning a knave as not to have the weakness sometimes to play the fool.

I'm smarter than the average; I just act dumb. That's what gets people's attention; you act dumb, you get people's attention.

Don't think so much of your own Cunning, as to forget other Men's; a Cunning Man is overmatched by a cunning Man and a Half.

CUNNING, n. The faculty that distinguishes a weak animal or person from a strong one. It brings its possessor much mental satisfaction and great material adversity. An Italian proverb says: "The furrier gets the skins of more foxes than asses."

Cunning is the dwarf of wisdom.

Cunning proceeds from want of capacity.

Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.

Cunning... is but the low mimic of wisdom.

We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a victory not to be despised for a fool is covered with steel and it is often very hard to find his vulnerable part.

Fraud is the homage that force pays to reason.

It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.

In fact, to gull a fool seems to me an exploit worthy of a witty man.

Utilising wit in the thick of battle will be your key to victory.

Stratagem is the right hand of cunning.

Let a man be ne'er so wise, he may be caught with sober lies.

Am I Machiavellian? I don't think I'm quite the mastermind people would have me be. Everything I do tends to be very successful and it may have something to do with the fact that I'm very good, not necessarily that I manipulate. But that doesn't often occur to people.

One man may be more cunning than another, but no one can be more cunning than all the world.

And she’s very clever, Peeta. Well, she was. Until you outfoxed her

To succeed in the world we must look foolish but be wise.

A man has made great progress in cunning when he does not seem too clever to others.

A game of secret, cunning stratagems, in which only the fools who are fated to lose reveal their true aims or motives - even to themselves.

Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.

Dissimulation is innate in woman, and almost as much a quality of the stupid as of the clever.

You don't get on by being original. You don't get on by being bright. You don't get on by being strong. You get on by being a subtle crook.

Machination is worth more than force.