Anyone who’s never experienced the pleasure of betrayal doesn’t know what pleasure is.
—Jean Genet, 1986
Archive
Quotes
Alongside all swindlers the state now stands there as swindler-in-chief.
—Jacob Burckhardt, c. 1875In most cases men willingly believe what they wish.
—Julius Caesar, 52 BCCredulity forges more miracles than trickery could invent.
—Joseph Joubert, 1811And, after all, what is a lie? ’Tis but the truth in masquerade.
—Lord Byron, 1822We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.
—Tennessee Williams, 1953There is much difference between imitating a good man, and counterfeiting him.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1738There was no treachery too base for the world to commit.
—Virginia Woolf, 1927It was the men I deceived the most that I loved the most.
—Marguerite Duras, 1987Cheating is more honorable than stealing.
—German proverbLife is the art of being well deceived.
—William Hazlitt, c. 1817The poor man is ruined as soon as he begins to ape the rich.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 50 BCGrow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth.
—Czeslaw Milosz, 1946