Alexander Pope Quotes

Men are always sincere. They change sincerities, that's all.

Out of five hundred who speak glibly of love, not one can spell the first letter of his name.

We are not hypocrites in our sleep.

It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth.

It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.

No habit or quality is more easily acquired than hypocrisy, nor any thing sooner learned than to deny the sentiments of our hearts and the principle we act from: but the seeds of every passion are innate to us, and nobody comes into the world without them.

Don't be 'consistent', but be simply true.

All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.

None of us is guaranteed against failure or corruption of any kind; witness what's going on in the world in this moment, the follies of human nature and the failures of human nature.

… the cynic has unusually high motives or insight. He is better able to see behind false appearances, and he is more shocked and disappointed to discover the low motives of others. Because he is unwilling to be hypocritical, he is less popular and so he succeeds and leads less. Most people dislike cynics because cynics expose most people's hypocrisy.

It's best not to appear to believe what you say but to believe what you say.

The best men are not consistent in good--why should the worst men be consistent in evil?

Governor [Myron] Herrick is not a bad man; he is simply weak. He is one of those men who can do dishonest things honestly.

A lot of players act one way with teammates, one way with reporters, another way for fans, another for their friends. I'm just me all the time. I'm normal. Everyone else in the NFL is weird.

You should not live one way in private, another in public.

Sincerity seems to be a problem today. I'd rather be true and hated than be false and fool people.

He who is passionate and hasty is generally honest. It is your cool, dissembling hypocrite of whom you should beware.

There had never been a shortage of fools in the world

A monster is a person who has stopped pretending.

Those great and glorious actions that dazzle our eyes with their luster are represented by statesmen as the result of great wisdomand excellent design; whereas, in truth, they are commonly the effects of the humors and passions.

Surely nobody would be a charlatan, who could afford to be sincere.

Humans are very seldom either totally sincere or totally hypocritical. Their moods change, their motives are mixed, and they are often quite mistaken as to what their motives are.

A German writer observes: "The noblest characters only show themselves in their real light. All others act comedy with their fellow-men even unto the grave.

The hypocrite who always plays one and the same part ceases at last to be a hypocrite.

... it's always determined characters who make the greatest fools.