Cunning is none of the best nor worst qualities; it floats between virtue and vice: there is scarce any exigence where it may not, and perhaps ought not to be supplied by prudence.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
Cleverness and cunning are incompatible.—I never saw them united.—The latter is the resource of the weak, and is only natural to them.—Children and fools are always cunning, but clever people never.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline; simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
Cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men, as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
The common practice of cunning is the sign of a small genius.—It almost always happens that those who use it to cover themselves in one place, lay themselves open in another.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Cunning signifies, especially, a habit or gift of overreaching, accompanied with enjoyment and a sense of superiority.—It is associated with small and dull conceit, and with an absolute want of sympathy or affection.—It is the intensest rendering of vulgarity, absolute and utter.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Cunning is the ape of wisdom.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
Cunning leads to knavery.—It is but a step from one to the other, and that very slippery.—Only lying makes the difference; add that to cunning, and it is knavery.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in the duties of life; cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interests and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understanding; cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
We take cunning for a sinister or crooked wisdom, and certainly there is a great difference between a cunning man and a wise man, not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Cunning has effect from the credulity of others. It requires no extraordinary talents to lie and deceive.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
With foxes we must play the fox.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
The very cunning conceal their cunning; the indifferently shrewd boast of it.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
The most sure way of subjecting yourself to be deceived, is to consider yourself more cunning than others.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The fly that does not want to be swatted is safest if it sits on the fly-swat.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
We should do by our cunning as we do by our courage,—always have it ready to defend ourselves, never to offend others.
—George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick (1746–1816) British Nobleman, Politician
In a great business there is nothing so fatal as cunning management.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
Cunning pays no regard to virtue, and is but the low mimic of wisdom.
—Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751) English Politician, Philosopher
The greatest cunning is to have none at all.
—Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American Biographer, Novelist, Socialist
The greatest of all cunning is to seem blind to the snares which we know are laid for us; men are never so easily deceived as while they are endeavoring to deceive others.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
A cunning man overreaches no one half as much as himself.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
All my own experience of life teaches me the contempt of cunning, not the fear. The phrase “profound cunning” has always seemed to me a contradiction in terms. I never knew a cunning mind which was not either shallow, or, on some points, diseased.
—Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) Irish-born Literary, Art Critic
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