My object is to mystify and entertain. I wouldn't deceive…

The average man is not hard to mystify.

— Howard Thurston

It is quite as ignominious to allow oneself to be deceived as to deceive.

— Christina, Queen of Sweden

The best way to deceive a knave is to tell him the truth.

— Ivan Panin

It is as easy to unknowingly deceive yourself as it is to deceive others.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

And since we cannot deceive the whole human race all the time, it is most important thus to cut every generation off from all…

— C. S. Lewis

We avenge intelligence when we deceive a fool, and the victory is worth the trouble

— Giacomo Casanova

It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown.

— Anatole France

We often shed tears that deceive ourselves after deceiving others.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Trust the story ... the storyteller may dissemble and deceive, the story can't: the story can only ever be itself.

— James Robertson

Those who try to achieve success without hard work ultimately deceive themselves-or worse-deceive others.

— Tim Cook

No, it's not that they're bad. It's that they're obliged to pretend they're good. They've been brought up to deceive and be cunning, to…

— Carlos Fuentes

Nothing is so easy as to deceive oneself; for what we wish, we readily believe.

— Demosthenes

“Looks sure can be deceiving: not every ‘ugly’ person is a ‘bad’ person (or is guilty of whatever it is that they are accused…

— Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“She knows she's deceiving herself about that, but she prefers to deceive herself. She desperately needs to believe such pure joy is still possible.”

— Margaret Atwood

We deceive ourselves when giving respect to the person for whom we have surrendered ourselves, when we respectively expect them to be as we…

— Friedrich Nietzsche