Cunning differs from wisdom as twilight from open day.

Knowledge differs from wisdom in case that you use it negatively or intolerably

— Tivea

...a common observation, that few are mended by imprisonment, and that he, whose crimes have made confinement necessary, seldom makes any other use of…

— Samuel Johnson

The whole power of cunning is privative; to say nothing, and to do nothing , is the utmost of its reach. Yet men, thus…

— Samuel Johnson

Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.

— Samuel Johnson

That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.

— Samuel Johnson

Cunning has effect from the credulity of others, rather than from the abilities of those who are cunning. It requires no extraordinary talents to…

— Samuel Johnson

Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us…

— Samuel Johnson

Criticism, though dignified from the earliest ages by the labours of men eminent for knowledge and sagacity, has not yet attained the certainty and…

— Samuel Johnson

All theory is against free will; all experience is for it.

— Samuel Johnson

You can never be wise unless you love reading.

— Samuel Johnson

That humanity and sincerity which dispose men to resist injustice and tyranny render them unfit to cope with the cunning and power of those…

— Anonymous

The terrible immoralities are the cunning ones hiding behind masks of morality, such as exploiting people while pretending to help them.

— Vernon Howard

It is a pity that, commonly, more care is had--yea, and that among very wise men--to find out rather a cunning man for their…

— Roger Ascham

Life is a battle of wits, and many people have to fight it unarmed.

— Evan Esar

Charm is a cunning self-forgetfulness.

— Christina Stead