We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.

It was the men I deceived the most that I loved the most.

Alongside all swindlers the state now stands there as swindler-in-chief.

There is much difference between imitating a good man, and counterfeiting him.

He that will cheat you at play, will cheat you any way.

Anyone who’s never experienced the pleasure of betrayal doesn’t know what pleasure is.

In most cases men willingly believe what they wish.

You can put wings on a pig, but you don’t make it an eagle.

Honesty, for me, is usually the worst policy imaginable.

There was no treachery too base for the world to commit.

If you find excrement somewhere in the village, the chief was the one who put it there.

Grow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth.

And, after all, what is a lie? ’Tis but the truth in masquerade.