It’s common for Men to give 6 pretended Reasons instead of one real one.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1745 ed.)
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Quotations about:
pretending
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I believe in the religion of humanity. It is far better to love our fellow-men than to love God. We can help them. We cannot help him. We had better do what we can than to be always pretending to do what we cannot.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1884-01-20), “Orthodoxy,” Tabor Opera House, Denver, Colorado
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Published as its own book in 1884.
CALVIN: I think grown-ups just act like they know what they’re doing.
“Hallo, Rabbit,” he said, “is that you?”
“Let’s pretend it isn’t,” said Rabbit, “and see what happens.”A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
Winnie-the-Pooh, ch. 8 “Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition” (1926)
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JANE: Oh, I know about pretending. I once went on holiday and pretended to be twins. It was amazing fun. I invented this mad, glamorous sister and went around really annoying everybody. And d’you know, I could get away with anything when I was my crazy twin Jane.
SALLY: But you’re Jane.
JANE: Kinda stuck. It’s a long story.
Steven Moffat (b. 1961) Scottish television writer, producer
Coupling, 02×09 “The End of the Line” (2001-10-29)
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(Source (Video) at 3:31; dialog verified)
So be wise, because the world needs more wisdom, and if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would.
Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Speech (2012-05-17), Commencement, University of the Arts, Philadelphia [19:05]
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There were all kinds of things of which I was afraid at first, from grizzly bears to “mean” horses and gunfighters, but by acting as if I was not afraid, I gradually ceased to be afraid.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Autobiography, ch. 2 “The Vigor of Life” (1913)
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An open foe may prove a curse,
But a pretended friend is worse.John Gay (1685-1732) English poet and playwright
“The Shepherd’s Dog and the Wolf,” pt. 1, ll. 33-34 (1727)
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See Franklin (1740).
We are never so ridiculous through what we are as through what we pretend to be.
[On n’est jamais si ridicule par les qualités que l’on a que par celles que l’on affecte d’avoir.]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶134 (1665-1678) [tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]
(Source)
Present in the 1st (1665) edition.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:The Qualities a man really hath, make him not so ridiculous as those which out of pure affectation he pretends to have.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶15]Men become Ridiculous, not so much for the Qualities they have, as those they would be thought to have, when they really have them not.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶135]We are never made so ridiculous by the qualities we have, as by those we affect to have.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶22; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶130]Never are we made so ridiculous; by the qualities we have, as by those we affect to have.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶19]We are never so ridiculous from the qualities we have, as from those we affect to have.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶137]We are never so ridiculous from the habits we have as from those that we affect to have.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶134]Our true qualities never make us as ridiculous as those we affect.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶134]Our real qualities never excite such ridicule as those we pretend to possess.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶134]We are never so ridiculous for the qualities we have as for those we pretend to.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶134]We are never so ridiculous through qualities we have as through those we pretend to have.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶134]One is never as ridiculous with the qualities one has, as with those one affects to have. [tr. Siniscalchi (c. 1994)]We are never so ridiculous in our personal qualities, as in those which we pretend to have.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶134]
