Jay-Z Quotes

You just let people do what they do and look at them and give them enough rope until they do what you thought they were going to do... which is screw you over.

The cunningest dissimulation is when a man pretends to be caught in the traps others set for him; and a man is never so easily over-reached as when he is contriving to over-reach others.

The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool.

When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.

We have a good arrangement. Roman lies to me and I pretend to believe him.

Too often in politics the stiletto is slipped between your shoulder blades, while its wielder continues to smile sweetly.

Creative betrayal is the essence of successful statesmanship.

Politics, so far as mobilizing support is concerned, represents the art of calculated cheating, or more precisely how to cheat without being really caught

Oil rich boys . . . had a nice, sweet smile but when you finished meeting with them your socks were missing and you hadn't even noticed they'd taken your boots.

He who disguises tyranny, protection, or even benefits under the air and name of friendship reminds me of the guilty priest who poisoned the sacramental bread.

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

More dangers have deceived men than forced them.

Keep your friends close and your enemies dead and buried in the basement.

Many a man's tongue shakes out his master's undoing.

You have, let us say, a promising politician, a rising artist that you wish to destroy. Dagger or bomb are archaic, clumsy and unreliable - but teach him, inoculate him with chess.

She turned to Frizz. "So you understand the problem? You can't let Tally know about Radical Honesty. There's no telling what she'll do if she finds out you could ruin her plans." Frizz's eyebrows rose. "So let me get this straight, Aya-chan. You want me, a person who can't lie, to lie about the fact that I can't lie?" "We need another plan," Hiro said.

Deception is a sort of seduction. In love and war, adultery and espionage, deceit can only succeed if the deceived party is willing, in some way, to be deceived.

Worse than thieves, murderers, or cannibals, those who offer compromise slow you and sap your vitality while pretending to be your friends. They are not your friends. Compromisers are the enemies of all humanity, the enemies of life itself. Compromisers are the enemies of everything important, sacred, and true.

Leaden trumpets spit the soot of power they say"I'm on your side when nobody is, cause nobody is.Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear

It is difficult to say who do you the most mischief, enemies with the worst intentions, or friends with the best.

The best way to weaken one's enemy was to get him to believe that you were on his side.

Hit that back-stabber where it hurts, right in the ambition.

People tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. And it always does. That is one last thing to remember. Writers are always selling somebody out.

Machiavelli is right: one always must live with one's friends with the idea that they may turn into one's enemies. He should have said, with everyone.