William Hazlitt Quotes

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

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.

I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.

It takes a very wise man to act the fool.

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

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.

A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.

Education, n.: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.

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.

To know how to dissimulate is the knowledge of kings.

Fraud is the homage that force pays to reason.

It takes a wise man to handle a lie, a fool had better remain honest.

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.

The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool.

An intelligent enemy is better than a stupid friend.

Being a blockhead is sometimes the best security against being cheated by a man of wit.

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.

I'm very good at manipulation.

The advantage of wisdom is that you can play dumb. The opposite is more difficult.

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

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