In all ages, hypocrites, called priests, have put crowns upon the heads of thieves, called kings.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
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) German Chancellor, Prime Minister
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
Hypocrisy is oftenest clothed in the garb of religion.
—Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) American Theologian
It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.
—Alfred Adler (1870–1937) Austrian Psychiatrist
Hypocrite reader – my fellow – my brother.
—Jerome (347–420) Greek Priest, Apologist, Saint
One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
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
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 Filmmaker
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
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
A man generally has two reasons for doing a thing. One that sounds good, and a real one.
—J. P. Morgan (1837–1913) American Financier, Philanthropist, Art Collector
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
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
He rightly reads scripture who turns words into deeds.
—Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) French Catholic Religious Leader
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
Saint abroad and devil at home.
—John Bunyan (1628–88) English Puritan Writer, Preacher
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, Playwright
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
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
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) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Live truth instead of professing it.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
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
Hypocrisy is folly. — It is much easier, safer, and pleasanter to be the thing which a man aims to appear, than to keep up the appearance of what he is not.
—Richard Cecil
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
We are companions in hypocrisy.
—William Dean Howells (1837–1920) American Novelist, Short story Author, Editor
Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Be hypocritical, be cautious, be not what you seem but always what you see.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
One of the many burdens of the person professing Christianity has always been the odium likely to be heaped upon him by fellow Christians quick to smell out, denounce and punish fraud, hypocrisy and general un-worthiness among those who assert the faith. In ruder days, disputes about what constituted a fully qualified Christian often led to sordid quarrels in which the disputants tortured, burned and hanged each other in the conviction that torture, burning and hanging were Christian things to do.
—Russell Baker (1925–2019) American Journalist, Humorist, Television Host
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, Playwright
All of us are experts at practicing virtue at a distance.
—Theodore Hesburgh (1917–2015) American Catholic Educator, Clergyman
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
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
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