Henry Adams Quotes

Reality seems so simple. We just open our eyes and there it is. But that doesn't mean it is simple.

Make the hard ones look easy and the easy ones look hard.

Maybe we should have known that night in Denver that things that begin with plywood Greek columns and artificial smoke typically don't end well. Maybe the Hollywood stars and the glamour blinded us a little: you thought it was the glare, some of us thought it was a halo.

Flatterers look like friends, as wolves like dogs.

In life, unfortunately, I've had multiple experiences where people that I thought I could depend on have switched up, or I've caught them in lies, and their true colours have shown.

The human face is a weak guarantee; yet it deserves some consideration. And if I had to whip the wicked, I would do so more severely to those who belied and betrayed the promises that nature had implanted on their brows; I would punish malice more harshly when it was hidden under a kindly appearance.

What glitters may not be gold; and even wolves may smile; and fools will be led by promises to their deaths.

It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so. I admire you, beloved, for the trap you've set. It's like a final chapter no one reads because the plot is over.

Please remember: things are not what they seem.

Appearances are not held to be a clue to the truth,' said his cousin. 'But we seem to have no other.

love is the biggest con of all

Beauty is a mute deception.

Hope deceives more men than cunning does.

Tis an old saying, the Devil lurks behind the cross. All is not gold that glitters. From the tail of the plough, Bamba was made King of Spain; and from his silks and riches was Rodrigo cast to be devoured by the snakes.

You know how in football, guys throw defenses, and the defense throws you a look, but the look is not really what it is - it's only made to fool you. It's the same thing with drugs. The drug is only an illusion to draw you in.

Evil comes to us men of imagination wearing as its mask all the virtues.

Her seductive power, however, did not lie in her looks [...]. In reality, Cleopatra was physically unexceptional and had no political power, yet both Caesar and Antony, brave and clever men, saw none of this. What they saw was a woman who constantly transformed herself before their eyes, a one-woman spectacle.Her dress and makeup changed from day to day, but always gave her a heightened, goddesslike appearance. Her words could be banal enough, but were spoken so sweetly that listeners would find themselves remembering not what she said but how she said it.

Truth does less good in the world than its appearances do harm.

Everybody was up to something, especially, of course, those who were up to nothing.

All that shimmers on the surface of the world, all that we call interesting, is the fruit of ignorance and inebriation.

We are deceived by promises and time disappoints us.

Deception is a sort of seduction. In love and war, adultery and espionage, deceit can only succeed if the deceived party is willing, in some way, to be deceived.

her scruffy innoscense to impregnate with his dreams. reason was seductive, it gave the appearance of truth

As a performer, I'm constantly fascinated with the idea of being able to know what anybody else's experience is, and how misleading all informatives, like appearance, can be.