Re: Sin and its nature (quotation-ring)

[Rob Kall <fh@futurehealth.org>]

At 11:44 AM 11/2/99 -0500, you wrote:
>"Character is doing what is right when no one is looking."  (I forget who
>said this...my collection isn't right here!)
Sounds like something La Rochefoucauld would say. He has this whole thing
about
the maning of all kinds of things being related to whether or not there was
intention or public awareness of an act.
BTW, I guess I should introduce myself. Quotes have been an interest of mine
since my early teens, when I bought my first quote book-- the left handed
dictionary.  Since then, I've accumulated somewhere between 300 and 400 more
quote books and their cousins, and I've been building my own personal library
of quotes on disk. 
Below my signoff  are a few on deception, to supplement those already
presented, as related to the topic on self deception and sin. I took these
from
a few of my raw files. Interestingly, most o them came from the main file I've
created on my own, over the years, having keyed in about  three megs of
quotes.
My interest in quotes started when I was working on a book on heartwarming,
and
I couldn't find any hard science research. Shakespeare, Byron, Wm. James,
Emerson came through when Index MEdicus and Psych abstracts failed me. 
Since then, I've become addicted (as in beyond bibliophilia)  to quote and
quote book collecting (as well as epigrams, aphorisms, maxims, laconica,
sayings, thoughts, etc.) Ny earliest book dates to the 1780s-- a John Ray
collection of proverbs, and then a two volume, large , leatherbound 1806
edition of Samuel Johnson's dictionary (sample definition: Electricity: an
unusual property of amber)
I've been gradually building a collection of subjects which I have batches of
quotes. I start with my main files, then go to the web, then to anywhere
between 30 and 80 quote books I tend to use most often, from Burton
Stevenson's
huge 2700 pager, to Douglas' 40,000 quotes, Allibone's (1889 vintage) two
volumes of prose and poetry, and.... others. I don't know what I'll do with
them-- maybe do a book someday. The numbers of quotes for a topic varies so
much though. I have over 300 on courage, for example, and only a handful on
other topics.  Whiole I plan to  get most of the basic topics covered, I am
particularly interested in psychology, health, consciousness, behavioral
medicine, and metaphoric topics-- like up, down, flowering, flow, energy,
etc.,
where the quotes use those metaphors, as applied to other topics, rather than
really being about flowers, or energy, in themselves. I see so many quote
books
as really being collections of metaphors. 
Lastly, I've been happy to provide a number of book writing friends and
colleagues with quotes for their books. The latest is one on Native American
Quotes. So far I've done them for free. I am trying to build a consulting
business with quotes, since I think I have some unusually strong resources.
I'd
like to hear from others about what they do, what their resources are, etc.
Anyway. I look forward to making contact with other quotephiles.
Sincerely, 
Rob Kall
Quotation Central; mind/body, health, consciousness, behavioral medicine,
metaphor quotations. 890+ quotations and growing
http://www.futurehealth.org/quotatio.htm
BTW The words in caps above the quotes are subjects/key words I tag the quotes
with for doing searches.
"'Tis as easy to deceive one's self without perceiving it, as it is difficult
to deceive others without being perceived."
la rochefoucauld maxim #115
"... never are we so easily deceived, as when we are contriving how to deceive
others."
la rochefoucauld maxim #117
"Our intention of never deceiving any body exposes us to be often deceived."
la rochefoucauld maxim #118
"Men are oftner treacherous out of weakness than out of any formed design."
la rochefoucauld maxim #120
"Men often do good, that they may be able to do ill with impunity."
la rochefoucauld maxim #121
"Hope, deceitful as it is, serves at least to lead us through a pleasant road
to our lives end."
la rochefoucauld maxim #168
"In love, deceit goes almost always further than distrust."
la rochefoucauld maxim #335
Amusement that is excessive and pursued only for its own sake allures and
deceives us, and leads us down imperceptibly in thoughtlessness to the grave
Pascal
Nature often deceives us, and does not bow to her own laws.
Pascal, Pensees
EMOTION, FEELING, HEART, DISTORT, FILTER, PERCEPTION
Man is but a being filled with error... The senses deceive reason by false
appearances; and just as they cheat reason they are cheated by her in turn:
she
has her revenge. Passions of the soul trouble the senses, and give them false
impressions. They emulously lie and deceive each other.
Pascal, Pensees
INTEGRITY, STRESS, DECEPTION
"The danger that is open and honorable, intrepidity may face, and will in the
end vanquish. But the ruffian, who stabs in the dark, men of courage and
virtue
are unprepared to resist: They are ignorant of his arts, and unsuspicious of
his purposes, and they too often perish by the blow."
Sallust, Epistle First, Addressed to Caesar
We must make a difference between speaking to deceive and being silent to be
impenetrable.
Voltaire, Essai sur les Moeurs
MISLEAD, HONESTY
"We must distinguish between speaking with intent to Deceive and keeping
silence
with intent to be inscrutable."
Voltaire, Essay
POLITICS, DECEPTION
"In all business of state there is always a pretext which is put forward,
and a
real reason which is kept in the background."
Voltaire, The Century of Louis 15, chapter 38
LIES, LYING, DECEPTION
The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.
Aristotle 384-322BC, On The HEavens
APPEARANCE, IMAGE, FACE, MARKETING, DECEPTION, FACADE, MASK
"Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear what they
are not."
*Beadle, E.R.
There is a smile of love,
And there is a smile of deceit,
ANd there is a smile of smiles
In which the two smiles meet.
WIlliam Blake, Smile and Frown
LYING, EVASION, EQUIVOCATION
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.
Blake, Auguries of INnocence
HONESTY, RELTIONSHIPS, LYING
"Since relationships are created by the dayto day process of "sharing reality,
we cannot have a relationship built upon lies, even benevolent ones. The
chance
of deception becomes always possible as the basis for all future interaction.
Your real self... becomes permanently violated and all future interrelatedness
assumes the possibility of a series of lies. Security in relating vanishes. 
Only the truth can help us feel secure... can bring us the necessary trust for
long lasting relationships... can create a safe environment of unity and
growth."
Leo Buscaglia, LOVING EACH OTHER, 
APPEARANCE, BEAUTY, SKIN DEEP
But to see him in that way, how shall I be able to judge of his character? I
shall merely see his outward appearance, look and mien; but as to the rest,
Isabella, what trust can I  put in it?  These flattering mirrors reflect
imperfectly what is within; the appearance is often a gay deceiver; what
defects of mind lie hidden under its beauty! And what fair exteriors conceal
base souls! The eyes, no doubt, in this important choice of a husband, must be
the first to act; but to trust everything to them is to put everything to
hazard: he who wishes to live at ease ought not to displease them, but without
being a slave, he ought to reckon it enough to give them satisfaction, to
yield
if they object, but not assent if they agree, and to allow the fire of love to
be lighted up from other causes. This chain, which lasts as long as our life,
and ought to excite more fear than envy, if we do not take care, often joins
opposite to opposite, and the dead to the living: and for myself, since it is
necessary that it give me a master, before accepting him I should like to know
him, but to know him in his inmost soul.
Corneille, La Menteur
FEEDBACK, CRITICISM, ADVICE, ART
"There is nothing more apt to deceive us than our own judgement, in
deciding on
our own works; and we should derive more advantage from having our faults
pointed out by our enemies, than by hearing the opinions of our friends,
because they are too much like ourselves, and may deceive us as much as our
own
judgement."
DaVinci, Leonardo, A TREATISE ON PAINTING
MEMORY, ART
"Whoever flatters himself that he can retain in his memory all the effects of
nature, is deceived, for our memory is not so capacious: therefore consult
nature for everything."
DaVinci, Leonardo, A TREATISE ON PAINTING
ART, DECEPTION, FANTASY, FICTION, REALISM, CREATING
"How to make an imaginary animal appear natural. 
It is evident that it will be impossible to invent any animal without
giving it
members, and these members must individually resemble those of some known
animal. 
If you wish, therefore, to make a chimera, or imaginary animal appear natural
(let us suppose a serpent); take the head of a mastiff, the eyes of a cat, the
ears of a porcupine, the mouth of a hare, the brows of a lion, the temples of
an old cock, and the neck of a sea tortoise."
DaVinci, Leonardo, A TREATISE ON PAINTING
Jean De La Fontaine 1621-1695
It is doubly pleasing to trick the trickster.
It is doubly pleasing to deceive the deceiver.
De La Fontaine, The Cock and the FOx
It is better to be deceived by one's friends than to deceive them. 
Goethe
Every protective self deception is a crevice in our psyche with a little demon
lurking in it, ready to become an episode of unexplained anxiety when life
threatens. The self deceptions which are designed to protect us from pain
actually end up delivering more pain. We fortify our deceptions to protect
them
from the natural corrections of daily life."
Roger Gould, TRANSFORMATIONS
SELF DECEPTION, DENIAL
No man was ever so much deceived by another as by himself.
Greville
, LYING, DECEIT, VIRTUE, INTEGRITY, CHARACTER, 
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a
second time.
Thomas Jefferson
LUCK, FORTUNE
"Ill fortune never crushed that man whom good fortune deceived not."
Ben Jonson
A good heart is better than all the heads in the world.
Bullwer Lytton  The Disowned
The easiest person to deceive is one's own self.
Bullwer Lytton  The Disowned
SUCKERS, FRAUD, FLIM-FLAM
"Men are so simple and so ready to obey present necessities, that one who
deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived."
Machiavelli, Niccolo, THE PRINCE, In What Way Princes Must Keep Faith
SHAM, LYING, FRAUD, DECEPTION
"He always succeeded in his deceptions, as he knew well this aspect of
things."
Machiavelli, Niccolo, THE PRINCE, In What Way Princes Must Keep Faith
PERSPECTIVE/ATTITUDE, SELF_DECEPTION:
"Men are very apt to deceive themselves in generals, less so than in
particulars"
Macchiavelli
Love brings to light the noble and hidden qualities of a lover-- his rare and
exceptional traits: it is thus liable to be deceptive as to his normal
character.
Nietzsche  BGaE
PLATO 428-348
LIES, DECEPTION
"...unless by force of eloquence they mean the force of truth, for then I do
indeed admit that I am eloquent." 
 Socrates debating accusers charges to judges to beware his eloquence. 
Plato,  APOLOGY OF SOCRATES
All warfare is based on deception.
Sun Tzu Wu (500 BC) Art of War
We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength
needs it far more. A straw or feather sustains itself long in the air.
Madame Swetchine
Without enthusiasm, the adventurer couldnever kindle that fire in his
followers
which is so necessary to consolidate their mutual interests; for no one can
heartily deceive numbers who is not first of all deceived himself.
Warburton
FACT, BOOKS, 
Do not consider a thing as proof because you find it written in books; for
just
as a liar will deceive with his tongue, he will not be deterred from doing the
same thing with his pen. They are utter fools who accept a thing as convincing
proof  simply because it is in writing. 
Maimonides, Iggeret Teman, Responsa
DECEPTION, HONESTY, 
We're all hypocrites in one form or another.
Marlon Brando
HONESTY, DECEPTION, LIAR, 
No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1864)
SUBCONSCIOUS, SELF AWARENESS, SELF KNOWLEDGE, EVIL
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know
it?
OT: Jeremiah, xvii, 9
SELF AWARENESS, DENIAL
"Who has deceived thee so oft as thyself?"
Franklin, Benjamin, POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC
We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know, because they have never
deceived us.
*Johnson, 
DUPLICITY, DECEPTION, DISLOYALTY
It  is generally the fate of a double dealer, to lose his power and keep his
enemies.
*Johnson, Life of Swift
Most of our platitudes notwithstanding, self-deception remains the most
difficult deception. The tricks that work on others count for nothing in that
very well-lit back alley where one keeps assignations with oneself: no winning
smiles will do here, no prettily drawn lists of good intentions. 
JOAN DIDION