Hosea Ballou Quotes

Satan is wiser now than before, and tempts by making rich instead of poor.

Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

Do not let a flattering woman coax and wheedle you and deceive you; she is after your barn.

One seldom recognizes the devil when he is putting his hand on your shoulder.

Man has fallen victim to seduction since times immemorial.

The devil doesn't come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you've ever wished for.

As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone, And hides the ruin that it feeds upon, So sophistry, cleaves close to, and protects Sin's rotten trunk, concealing its defects.

Leaden trumpets spit the soot of power they say"I'm on your side when nobody is, cause nobody is.Come sit right here and sleep while I slip poison in your ear

The Diabolical sometimes assumes the aspect of the Good, or even embodies itself completely in its form. If this remains concealedfrom me, I am of course defeated, for this Good is more tempting than the genuine Good.

The Devil may also make use of morality.

Man is oftentimes weak-minded enough to be caught in the snare of greed and honeyed words.

False as the adulterate promises of favorites in power when poor men court them.

The devil's voice is sweet to hear.

The love of their country is with them only a mode of flattering its master; as soon as they think that master can no longer hear, they speak of everything with a frankness which is the more startling because those who listen to it become responsible.

In politics, yesterday's lie is attacked only to flatter today's.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.

Bad people are intriguing!

Every man I knew went to bed with Gilda... and woke up with me.

It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.

The better day, the worse deed.

Most virtue is a demand for greater seduction.

The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it.

Many kiss the hand they wish cut off.

Sitting in marble corridors waiting for important people to lie to you.