A knave thinks himself a fool, all the time he is not making a fool of some other person.
We never deceive for a good purpose: knavery adds malice to falsehood.
But I would still reply, that the knavery and folly of men are such common phenomena, that I should rather believe the most extraordinary events to arise from their concurrence, than admit of so signal a violation of the laws of nature
Every knave is a thorough knave, and a thorough knave is a knave throughout.
Fashion--a word which knaves and fools may use, Their knavery and folly to excuse.
There are cases in which a man would be ashamed not to have been imposed upon. There is a confidence necessary to human intercourse, and without which men are often more injured by their own suspicions than they would be by the perfidy of others.
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.
Knaves starve not in the land of fools.
Knavery's plain face is never seen till used.
The worst of all knaves are those who can mimic their former honesty.
Knavery seems to be so much a the striking feature of its inhabitants that it may not in the end be an evil that they will become aliens to this kingdom.
Even knaves may be made good for something.
A picture is a thing which requires as much knavery, as much malice, and as much vice as the perpetration of a crime. Make it untrue and add an accent of truth.
Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.
Now I will show myselfTo have more of the serpent than the dove;That is--more knave than fool.
A brave world, sir, full of religion, knavery, and change: we shall shortly see better days.
We never deceive people to benefit them, for knavery is a compound of wickedness and falsehood.
I should think this a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it; knavery cannot, sure, hide himself in such reverence.
Zeno first started that doctrine, that knavery is the best defence against a knave.
Knavery and flattery are blood relations.
