The highest knowledge can be nothing more than the shortest and clearest road to truth; all the rest is pretension, not performance,… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
I got a rejection letter from an editor at HarperCollins, who included a report from his professional reader. This report shredded my… — David Mitchell Copy Share Image
I expect nothing of man, and disown the race. The only folly is expecting what is never attained; man is most contemptible… — H. P. Lovecraft Copy Share Image
When intimacy followed love in Italy there were no longer any vain pretensions between two lovers. — Stendhal Copy Share Image
“In those days, I didn't understand anything. I should have judged her according to her actions, not her words. She perfumed my… — Antoine de Saint-Exupery Copy Share Image
I have no pretension that I belong in D.C. I mean, I have to be cautious on how we do our restaurant. — Daniel Boulud Copy Share Image
Governments, whatever their pretensions otherwise, try to preserve themselves by holding the individual down ... Government itself, indeed, may be reasonably defined… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
I come from an Irish working-class background but went to a posh school, and any type of pretension was quickly mocked at… — Stephen Mangan Copy Share Image
The greatest human virtue bears no proportion to human vanity. We always think ourselves better than we are, and are generally desirous… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
... a canvas that I have covered is worth more than a blank canvas. My pretensions go no further; that is my… — Irving Stone Copy Share Image
“Just as hunters will mount the heads of the kills, white people need to let people know that they have made their… — Christian Lander Copy Share Image
“Xingu!" she scoffed. "Why, it was the fact of our knowing so much more about it than she did—unprepared though we were—that… — Edith Wharton Copy Share Image
Cant is the voluntary overcharging or prolongation of a real sentiment; hypocrisy is the setting up a pretension to a feeling you… — William Hazlitt Copy Share Image
Despite its scientific pretensions, economics still remains more of an art than a science — Robert Kuttner Copy Share Image
Pretences go a great way with men that take fair words and magisterial looks for current payment. — Roger L'Estrange Copy Share Image
These are no ordinary claims; and it seems hardly possible for a rational being to regard them with even a subdued interest;… — Simon Greenleaf Copy Share Image
Take the shortest route. The one that nature planned - to speak and act in the healthiest way. Do that, and be… — Marcus Aurelius Copy Share Image
As a general rule, people who flagrantly pretend to anything are the reverse of that which they pretend to. A man who… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
Fear is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of government, and ought in particular never to be employed against any order… — Adam Smith Copy Share Image
He flattered himself on being a man without any prejudices; and this pretension itself is a very great prejudice. — Anatole France Copy Share Image
This re-appearance of the doctrine of freewill serves to support that of the pretension of the natural man to be not irremediably… — John Nelson Darby Copy Share Image
The most agreeable of all companions is a simple, frank man, without any high pretensions to an oppressive greatness; one who loves… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
