Evelyn Waugh Quotes

To know how to dissimulate is the knowledge of kings.

A man always has two reasons for what he does—a good one and the real one.

Secrecy is the soul of all great designs. Perhaps more has been effected by concealing our own intentions than by discovering those of our enemy.

The truth can't be hidden for long.

A quiet fool can go undiscovered for a long time.

Hold to a thing long enough, a secret, a desire, maybe a lie, and it will shape you.

Everyone has something to hide. And if they couldn't hide it the world would be in a lot worse mess than it is.

No mention of God. They keep Him up their sleeves for as long as they can, vicars do. They know it puts people off.

I'm always suspicious of disinterested interest.

If we finished our work, the teacher would say, 'Now don't read ahead.' But sometimes I hid the book I was reading behind my geography book and did read ahead. You can hide a lot behind a geography book.

Two may keep counsel putting one away!

One bush, they say, can never hide two thieves.

Education-whether its object be children or adults, individuals or an entire people-consists in creating motives.

It would have been the easiest thing in the world for us to build those emplacements under the guise of something totally different and they would have never been discovered. The amazing thing was that they weren't discovered earlier. It was a question of carelessness, lack of foresight.

Nobody knows I'm Elvis, nobody knows this is me. After all of my tries, I've got the perfect disguise.

The truth that makes us free is always ticking away like a time-bomb in the basement of everybody's church.

The only way to retrieve a secret,once known, is to replace it with a lie.

...people with nothing to declare carry the most.

Don't lie, but don't tell the whole truth.

Everybody has something to conceal.

Not all of us know what we are. Some of us die without ever knowing. Some of us know, and never get caught. But we're out there. Trust me.

A man is hid under his tongue.

The eleventh commandment, "Thou shalt not be found out" is despicable, but nevertheless, it is the one thing you can never get away from.

They are playing above the ground.

What ever you do-Don't get caught.