#Hypocrisy Quotes

“They that have voice of lions and act of hares,--are they not monsters?”

“Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them; But, in the less foul profanation.”

“Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?”

“You undergo too strict a paradox, Striving to make an ugly deed look fair.”

“O heresy in fair, fit for these days,A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.”

“This is some fellow,Who having been prais'd for bluntness, doth affectA saucy roughness and constrains the garbQuite from his nature: he can't flatter, he!An honest mind and plain,--he must speak truth!And they will take it so; if not he's plain.These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainnessHarbor more craft, and far corrupter ends,Than twenty silly, ducking observants,That stretch their duty nicely.”

“False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”

“O father Abram, what these Christians are, Whose own hard dealing teaches them suspect The thoughts of others!”

“Through tattered clothes great vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks. Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it.”

“I like not fair terms and a villain's mind.”

“I speak of peace, while covert enmity under the smile of safety wounds the world”

“Such an actThat blurs the grace and blush of modesty;Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the roseFrom the fair forehead of an innocent love,And sets a blister there; makes marriage vowsAs false as dicers' oaths.”

“Through tattered clothes, small vices do appear. Robes and furred gowns hide all.”

“I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath made me mad.”

“Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads And recks not his own read.”

“If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide, By self-example mayst thou be denied.”

“Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, a face without a heart?”

“There is no vice so simple but assumes some mark of virtue on his outward parts.”

“I know them, yea,And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple;Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys,That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave, and slander,Go antickly, and show outward hideousness,And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst;And this is all.”

“Why, I can smile and murder whiles I smile, And cry 'content' to that which grieves my heart, And wet my cheeks with artificial tears, And frame my face for all occasions”

“A gentleman that loves to hear himself talk, will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month.”

“To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy.”

“Society always consists, in greatest part, of young and foolish persons. The old, who have seen through the hypocrisy of the courts and statesmen, die, and leave no wisdom to their sons. They believe their own newspaper, as their fathers did at their age.”

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

“Thieves for their robbery have authority When judges steal themselves.”

“The word liberty in the mouth of Mr. Webster sounds like the word love in the mouth of a courtesan.”

“Your face, my thane, is as a book where men May read strange matters. To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under't.”

“One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.”

“Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men?”

“His forward voice now is to speak well of his friend. His backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract.”

“Those who are esteemed umpires of taste, are often persons who have acquired some knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, andhave an inclination for whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they are beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are like fair pictures, you learn that they are selfish and sensual. Their cultivation is local, as if you should rub a log of dry wood in one spot to produce fire, all the rest remaining cold.”

“All men plume themselves on the improvement of society, and no man improves.”

“There is a certain satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we get rid of cant and hypocrisy.”

“The jury passing on the prisoner's life may in the sworn twelve have a thief or two guiltier than him they try.”

“Let us not look east and west for materials of conversation, but rest in presence and unity. A just feeling will fast enough supply fuel for discourse, if speaking be more grateful than silence. When people come to see us, we foolishly prattle, lest we be inhospitable. But things said for conversation are chalk eggs. Don't say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.”

“The pulpit and the press have many commonplaces denouncing the thirst for wealth, but if men should take these moralists at their word, and leave off aiming to be rich, the moralists would rush to rekindle at all hazards this love of power in the people, lest civilization should be undone.”

“When a man says to me, "I have the intensest love of nature," at once I know that he has none.”

“Nothing is more disgusting than the crowing about liberty by slaves, as most men are, and the flippant mistaking for freedom of some paper preamble like a Declaration of Independence, or the statute right to vote, by those who have never dared to think or to act.”

“Society gains nothing whilst a man, not himself renovated, attempts to renovate things around him; he has become tediously good insome particular but negligent or narrow in the rest; and hypocrisy and vanity are often the disgusting result.”

“I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.”

“You know That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard, And after scandal them.”

“The book written against fame and learning has the author's name on the title-page.”

“Every man has a bag hanging before him, in which he puts his neighbour's faults, and another behind him in which he stows his own.”

“Live loath'd and long,Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,You fools of fortune, trencher friends, time fliesCap and knee slaves, vapors, and minute jacks.”

“There is no room for hypocrisy. Why use bitter soup for healing when sweet water is everywhere?”

“And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, millions of mischiefs.”

“Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne'er loved them.”

“Should the poor be flattered? No; let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, and crook the pregnant hinges of the knee where thrift may follow fawning.”

“Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage.”

“The peace of the man who has forsworn the use of the bullet seems to me not quite peace, but a canting impotence.”