A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing. One that sounds good, and a real one.
—J. P. Morgan (1837–1913) American Businessperson, Investor
The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs of his neighbor.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political leader, Inventor, Diplomat, Author
In all ages, hypocrites, called priests, have put crowns upon the heads of thieves, called kings.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Atheist Politician, Orator, Social Critic, Essayist
Hypocrite reader – my fellow – my brother.
—Jerome (347–420) Greek Priest, Apologist, Saint
Be not intimidated, therefore, by any terrors, from publishing with the utmost freedom whatever can be warranted by the laws of your country; nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberty by any pretenses of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery, and cowardice.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Saint abroad and devil at home.
—John Bunyan (1628–88) English Christian Writer, Preacher
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul, producing holy witness, is like a villain with a smiling cheek; a goodly apple rotten at the heart.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Loud indignation against vice often stands for virtue in the eyes of bigots.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (1792–1870) Swiss Poet
When you say that you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.
—Otto von Bismarck (1815–98) Prussian German- Political leader, Nationalist
It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.
—Alfred Adler (1870–1937) Austrian Psychologist, Psychiatrist
Hypocrisy is oftenest clothed in the garb of religion.
—Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) American Universalist Clergyman, Writer
The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Anceient Greek Philosopher
Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
He rightly reads scripture who turns words into deeds.
—Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) French Catholic Religious Leader
The value of an idea has nothing whatever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet
Live truth instead of professing it.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
With people with only modest ability, modesty is mere honesty; but with those who possess great talent, it is hypocrisy.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked, and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet
Most of us are aware of and pretend to detest the barefaced instances of that hypocrisy by which men deceive others, but few of us are upon our guard or see that more fatal hypocrisy by which we deceive and over-reach our own hearts.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
People will disapprove of you if you’re unhappy, or if you’re happy in The Wrong Way.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get. Where there is no ventilation fresh air is declared unwholesome. Where there is no religion hypocrisy becomes good taste. Where there is no knowledge ignorance calls itself science.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
If I’m a cruel satirist at least I’m not a hyprocrite: I never judge what other people do. Neither a politician nor a priest, I never censor what others do. Neither a philospher nor a psychiatrist, I never bother trying to analyze or resolve my fears and neuroses
—Federico Fellini (1920–93) Italian Film Director
We are irritated by rascals, intolerant of fools, and prepared to love the rest. But where are they?
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
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.
—Bernard Mandeville
Throughout our lives, we see in the mirror the same innocent trusting face we have seen there since childhood.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
We are companions in hypocrisy.
—William Dean Howells (1837–1920) American Novelist, Short story Author, Editor
Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Children lack morality, but they also lack fake morality.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
An ounce of hypocrisy is worth a pound of ambition.
—Michael Korda
One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
If we divine a discrepancy between a man’s words and his character, the whole impression of him becomes broken and painful; he revolts the imagination by his lack of unity, and even the good in him is hardly accepted.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
To emancipate woman is to refuse to confine her to the relations she bears to man, not to deny them to her; let her have her independent existence and she will continue nonetheless to exist for him also: mutually recognising each other as subject, each will yet remain for the other an other. The reciprocity of their relations will not do away with the miracles — desire, possession, love, dream, adventure — worked by the division of human beings into two separate categories; and the words that move us — giving, conquering, uniting — will not lose their meaning. On the contrary, when we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy that it implies, then the ‘division’ of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form.
—Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) French Philosopher, Writer, Feminist
The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of myself.
—Jane Addams (1860–1935) American Social Activist, Political Activist, Author, Lecturer
It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor