One always saw and sees through pretense.

There's this American pretense, which is the pretense of the journalist with the view from nowhere - which has somehow morphed into the journalist…

— Masha Gessen

Having spent time around "sinners" and also around purported saints, I have a hunch why Jesus spent so much time with the former group:…

— Philip Yancey

“Sometimes a god comes," Selver said. "He brings a new way to do a thing, or a new thing to be done. A new…

— Ursula K. Le Guin

“If we get separated there’s not much hope of us ever meeting anywhere, but I need to keep up the pretense of hope because…

— Susan Ee

The insolent civility of a proud man is, if possible, more shocking than his rudeness could be; because he shows you, by his manner,…

— Lord Chesterfield

When all lies, deceit, pretense is stripped away, what remains? The truth of a painting, or a book or a man.

— William S. Burroughs

“Expectations are illusions; Pretense they hang on thin threads.”

— sir kristian goldmund aumann

The scientist who yields anything to theology, however slight, is yielding to ignorance and false pretenses, and as certainly as if he granted that…

— H. L. Mencken

It's useful to be born in a different culture because you see things that are not obvious. I come from France. In France, there…

— Francoise Mouly

Over the first two weeks of the Donald Trump administration, Steve Bannon has emerged as one of the most powerful figures in the White…

— Amy Goodman

Love of another is merely empty flattery and self-deception for one who cannot accept himself without pretense.

— L.E. Modesitt Jr

pretense is the oil that lubricates society.

— Mary Roberts Rinehart

Once you can fake sincerity, you can fake anything.

— Mary Jo Putney

“Employment is an employee’s kissing of an employer’s ass. A salary is the employer’s pretense to be cleaning his ass.”

— Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Prison is a crash course in the darker side of life. Few survive it without becoming a different person: more cynical, jaded, fearful, angry.…

— Peter McWilliams