Emma Lazarus Quotes

Anybody depending on somebody else's gods is depending on a fox not to eat chickens.

The knock-out punch is always the one you never see coming.

Life is not always like chess. Just because you have the king surrounded, don't think he is not capable of hurting you.

It's like Samson and Delilah: watch your back, because trouble could be the person you're sleeping with.

My guard stood hard when abstract threats, too noble to neglect, deceived me into thinking, I had something to protect.

Only the peak feels so sound and stable that the beginning of the falling is hidden for a little while.

Ornament is but the guiled shore to a most dangerous sea.

All are keeping a sharp look-out in front, but none suspects that the danger may be creeping up from behind.

The most mistrustful are often the greatest dupes.

Those who think themselves secure are more exposed to danger than any others. The armor-bearer of sin is self-confidence .

It is the calm and silent waters that drown you.

Jan built herself an ivory tower to keep the wolves out; she never dreamed they were already inside.

safety and love are both illusions!

A serpent is a serpent, and none the less a viper, because it is nestled in the bosom of an honest-hearted man.

The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster.

Tis well for old age that it is always accompanied with want of perception, ignorance, and a facility of being deceived. For should we see how we are used and would not acquiesce, what would become of us?

Wait. You think I'm going to die? That's why you slept with me?

Most humans think the appearance of quiet is quiet. They do not see that sometimes the enemy is as quiet as the serpent. Only when it has stolen all of their eggs will they know bad walks in the quiet as well as the noisy.

There is no safety in regaining the favor of an enemy.

Everyone feels awkward, everyone feels uncomfortable, everyone gets older, everyone gets lonely, everyone gets sick, everyone eventually dies. You’re at the Aspen Ideas Fest, and you have these really smart, really accomplished people who pretend like they’ve somehow figured out a way to bypass the human condition. We live in this culture where there are so many things that want us to pretend that we’re not truly human.

What looked safe was not safe. What looked hard and unsafe was probably safer. Anyway, safe was somewhere else in the world.

The devil has been painted swarthy, cloven-footed, horned, and hideous. Do we expect to see him in that shape? O, surely it would be better for us, if he did come in that shape! The trouble is the devil never does come in that shape. He comes by chance, with unregistered signals, and in all sorts of counterfeit presentiments.

The most effectual way to be deceived is to believe oneself more cunning than one's neighbors.

There was I, devouring books and yet allowing a man who had never read a book to walk me home for a bit of harmless fumbling on the front steps.

It's easy to slide into believing you're the hypnotist here, the mirage master, the smart cookie who knows what's real and how all the tricks are done. The fact is you're still just another slack-jawed mark in the audience. No matter how good you are, this world is always going to be better at this game. It's more cunning than you are, it's faster and it's a whole lot more ruthless. All you can do is try to keep up, know your weak spots and never stop expecting the sucker punch.