E. B. White Quotes

For the task assigned them Men aren't smart enough or sly Any rogue can blind them With a clever lie.

I'd rather be Jack be smart, than Jack be quick. Watch out for the man with the big fat licking stick.

We may employ artifice to deceive a rival, anything against our enemies.

Deception is the knowledge of kings.

I pretend to be a gentleman, and, when the other fellow finds out, it is too late.

For all the criticism of me, there's one thing you won't hear anybody say, and that's that I've pulled the wool over anyone's eyes.

Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.

If you outsmart your audience, you're going to lose them.

Lucifer is a master at gradual deception.

I have learned that documentary makers are incredibly sneaky people.

No other mammal is as deceitful as the human being.

A shinobi embodies an archetype that is able to use everything at their disposal. They don't pick a fighting style; they use every means and everything they can get their hands on. They exploit every weakness.

...and he smiled a lot. The smile did not mean that he was happy. It meant he was stronger than most people, and that he intended to take advantage of it.

Little chickie la la, isn’t dumb enough to fall for that, guys. (Tabitha)

If you are trying to fool a farsighted or dimwitted person, a veiled facial disguise might be enough.

You think him to be your dupe; if he feigns to be so who is the greater dupe, he or you?

[Calling you a] star is just a trick. It's like a straw man thing. They [people] set you up just to knock you over. It's bull. You avoid it, I avoid it.

The most ingenious men continually pretend to condemn tricking--but this is often done that they may use it more conveniently themselves, when some great occasion or interest offers itself to them.

The cleverest trick of the Devil is that nobody believes in him. It. Her. Well, we have been very stupid.

If you use a trick in logic, whom can you be tricking other than yourself?

And a diplomatist is one who lets the other fellow think he's getting his way, while all the time he's having his own. It never does any special harm to let people have their way with their mouths.

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.

Be not caught by the cunning of those who appear in a disguise.

Taren Ferry folk had a reputation for slyness and trickery. If you shook hands with a Taren Ferry man, people said, you counted your fingers afterwards.

All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you; digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.