Flannery O'Connor Quotes

All warfare is based on deception.

You should always try to deceive your enemy.

Always keep your foes confused. If they are never certain who you are or what you want, they cannot know what you are like to do next.

Misdirection is one of my strengths.

Obviously a fake Kyp. You distract him. I'll shoot him under the table." Han (to Leia)

The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they're learning something else.

I flicked my eyes over to Steve again and saw him straighten. He would need a diversion just to start. “Explanations?” I bellowed. “Explanations? There’s your explanation…there!” I stabbed a finger dramatically towards the far corner of the room. Pathetic, really. I mean, talk about the oldest trick in the book. But it’s a good book, and the trick would have been cut from subsequent editions if it didn’t sometimes work.

Machination is worth more than force.

A speech is something you say so as to distract attention from what you do not say.

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation

Israel cannot afford to be duped.

Trump is a master obfuscator. Like an octopus escaping a predator, he releases a cloud of ink when called to the carpet on one of his many lies. His strategy? Obfuscate, then reference others. 'Millions agree,' 'everyone knows,' 'many have done it.'

I'm smarter than the average; I just act dumb. That's what gets people's attention; you act dumb, you get people's attention.

You never show what you are going to do; you always do what the opponent doesn't expect.

Creating a distraction is a skill we should all have. Never take for granted your ability to spot something interesting out of the corner of you eye and take attention away from your thoughtlessness.

Big Brother isn’t watching. He’s singing and dancing. He’s pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother’s busy holding your attention every moment you’re awake. He’s making sure you’re always distracted. He’s making sure you’re fully absorbed.

Very often, I'm part of the deception because the way I play things is that I want you to be able to look back and go, "Oh, my god, I didn't see that at the time, but now it all makes sense," and you want to watch it a second time with the benefit of hindsight.

Occasionally words must serve to veil the facts. But let this happen in such a way that no one become aware of it; or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand to be produced immediately.

The best hiding spots are not the most hidden; they're merely the least searched.

That is your trick, your bit of filthy magic: invisibility, and the anaesthetic power to deaden my attention in your direction.

Like a stage magician, the con artist misdirects suspicion. While everyone’s watching for him to pull a rabbit out of a hat, he’s actually sawing a girl in half. You think he’s doing one trick when he’s actually doing another. You think that I’m dying, but I’m laughing at you.

As we all know, the most effective lies are the ones sprinkled with the most actual truths.

If we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need do is attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve.

I believe conspiracy theories are part of a larger conspiracy to distract us from the real conspiracy. String theory.