George Savile Quotes

Cunning... is but the low mimic of wisdom.

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

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

In fact, to gull a fool seems to me an exploit worthy of a witty man.

No other mammal is as deceitful as the human being.

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."

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

The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting. For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger, and covetous of gain; as long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours; they offer you their blood, their goods, their life, and their children, as I have before said, when the necessity is remote; but when it approaches, they revolt.

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

It is a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.

Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thought locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.

Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked.

The cleverness of avarice is but the cunning of imbecility.

Now I will show myselfTo have more of the serpent than the dove;That is--more knave than fool.

Cunning is neither the consequence of sense, nor does it give sense. A proof that it is not sense, is that cunning people never imagine that others can see through them. It is the consequence of weakness.

You will be amused when you see that I have more than once deceived without the slightest qualm of conscience, both knaves and fools.

I was one of the most brilliant liars as a child.

I fooled some of the most brilliant people in journalism.

It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.

There are no true friends in politics. We are all sharks circling, and waiting, for traces of blood to appear in the water.

Dishonesty is so grasping it would deceive God himself, were it possible.

The weak in courage is strong in cunning.

Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.

The fellow that agrees with everything you say is either a fool or he is getting ready to skin you.

It is unsafe to take your reader for more of a fool than he is.