Thomas Wolfe Quotes

Boston has carried the practice of hypocrisy to the n-th degree of refinement, grace, and failure.

Had he been willing to live a hypocrite, he would have been respectable, he at least could have died surrounded by other hypocrites, and at his death there would have been an imposing funeral, with miles of carriages, filled with hypocrites, and above his hypocritical dust there would have been a hypocritical monument covered with lies.

Hypocrisy is the outside of cynicism.

Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.

A single moment spent in a business meeting or at a pub is more than enough to reveal the basic human truth that we are all faking it most of the time. We congratulate a rival on a triumph when actually we are choking on spite. We are cordial and attentive to crashing bores.

Hypocrisy is the scarlet letter in politics.

Hypocrisy is the universal solvent of social relations.

Hypocrisy is an homage that vice renders to virtue.

The English are a nation of consummate cant.

We none of us talk to people as we do behind their backs.

Hypocrisy is nothing, in fact, but a horrible hopefulness.

The petty man is eager to make boasts, yet desires that others should believe in him. He enthusiastically engages in deception, yet wants others to have affection for him. He conducts himself like an animal, yet wants others to think well of him.

A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself. He would make a dupe of himself too, if he could.

Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.

An ounce of hypocrisy is worth a pound of ambition.

We ask advice, but we mean approbation.

I suppose it's easy to play a hypocritical politician with a smiling face; it's also quite gratifying to play.

Hypocrisy is a detriment to progress. There's always a hidden agenda.

Hypocrisy is the vaseline of political intercourse.

Be a hypocrite if you like, but don't talk like one.

Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.

We have a Sunday code and a weekday code. We preach good and practice evil. We clothe the wolf of our actions in the sheep's clothing of our beautiful phrases.

Hypocrisy is not the failure to practice what you preach but the failure to believe it. Hypocrisy is propaganda.

Oh Lord. Deliver us from the hypocrisy of talking to sound reasonable while not being reasonable.

Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities.