Margaret Atwood Quotes

I'm afraid you've thought me a bigger fool than I am.

Remember that anybody who is clever enough to set you free is clever enough to enslave you.

The more clever and cunning people are, the stranger the events will be.

And she’s very clever, Peeta. Well, she was. Until you outfoxed her

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

You can persuade a man to believe almost anything provided he is clever enough, but it is much more difficult to persuade someone less clever.

Dissimulation is innate in woman, and almost as much a quality of the stupid as of the clever.

Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty.

When a man wants a mystery, it is generally better to leave him mystified. Nobody loves a clever woman.

The wicked are always surprised to find that the good can be clever.

Passion often renders the most clever man a fool, and sometimes renders the most foolish man clever.

The fact is, the Time Traveller was one of those men who are too clever to be believed: you never felt that you saw all round him; you always suspected some subtle reserve, some ingenuity in ambush, behind his lucid frankness.

The world is full of people who are very clever at seeming much smarter than they really are.

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

A cunning mind emphatically delights in its own cunning, and is the ready prey of cunning.

How to get people to vote against their interests and to really think against their interests is very clever. It's the cleverest ruling class that I have ever come across in history. It's been two hundred years at it. It's superb.

I don't mind people thinking I'm stupid, but I don't want to give them any proof.

The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are clever as he.

With fear come the lies and the justifications that, no matter how convincing, lower our self-esteem.

There's nothing good about being certain about things. And I don't think there's any real talent in using language in a manipulative way, with phrases like "tax relief" or "Social Security reform." It's politically clever, but it's also completely disingenuous, and it's not something to aspire to.

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."

Some people think that I haven't got the brains to be that clever.

Cunning is the dwarf of wisdom.

It's nothing but a big stroke job in this country. The government strokes you every day of your life. Religion never stops stroking you. Big business gives you a good stroke. And it's one big, transcontinental, cross-country, red, white and blue stroke job... Do you know what the national emblem for this country ought to be? Forget that bald eagle. The national emblem of this country ought to be Uncle Sam standing naked at attention saluting, and seated on a chair next to him, the Statue of Liberty jerking him off. That would be a good symbol for the United Strokes of America.

A just cause needs no interpreting. It carries its own case. But the unjust argument since it is sick, needs clever medicine.