quotations about cunning
Being cunning, one cannot be at home with enlightenment. For a mind that hates external things, to seek illumination in a mind where nothing exists is to look for a reflection on the back of a mirror.
CH'ENG HAO
attributed, The Tao and the Daimon: Segments of a Religious Inquiry
Life is a battle of wits, and many people have to fight it unarmed.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
I be the cunning in your charm, and I be the needle in your arm
Call me once might, let you go; but call me twice, and then I'm gonna get ya
FERGIE
"Voodoo Doll"
Cunning may acquire an estate, but it cannot gain friends.
L. MURRAY
attributed, Day's Collacon
You wouldn't recognize a cunning plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing "Cunning plans are here again."
ROWAN ATKINSON
Blackadder
Cunning grows in deceit at seeing itself discovered, and tries to deceive with truth itself.
BALTHASAR GRACIAN
The Art of Worldly Wisdom
She's so cunning I almost want to keep her for myself, though I shudder when I think about the price.
CAROL K. COREY
"Plain Tales from the Trenches", National Geographic , 1918
Cunning to wise, is as an Ape to a Man.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
Cunning may be called a crafty or artful passion in the human mind, which very often shows itself in the countenance; and the cunning man goes about suspecting everyone, and trying to outwit all. Did ever anyone see a truly cunning man or woman with a large eye? No; they have mostly long, straight noses, and little twinkling eyes. They are like gutter-mongrel dogs, and others of the mongrel kind, and get their living by very doubtful and dirty means. Cunning people are usually very deficient in intellect; and one will often see it well developed in half-witted, and also in insane people, but the cunning of the madman is sometimes like that of the partridge, and that bird, it is believed, thinks it cannot be seen if it hides its head, as in that position it cannot see. Cunning people are to be avoided, as, of course, they are not straightforward, and cannot, as a rule, look you in the face, and do not look straight before them, but sideways generally. This special feature in the character of people is much handed down to their children, and the little ones, like little foxes, early show it; and even, like as puppies hide bones, will they hide things.
T. AUGUSTUS FORBES LEITH
Short Essays
It is important to realize that the cunning are not always vicious. The cunning often do good things, but for self-interested and utility-driven reasons.
JEFFREY CORNWALL
Bringing Your Business to Life
Cunning is the dwarf of wisdom.
W. R. ALGER
attributed, Day's Collacon
A cunning mind emphatically delights in its own cunning, and is the ready prey of cunning.
ANNA JAMESON
A Commonplace Book of Thoughts
She's cunning as a fox
Clever as a crow
Solid as a rock
She is stubborn as a stone
She's a hardheaded woman
PASSENGER
"And I Love Her"
A man without cunning is like an empty matchbox.
ARAB PROVERB
Cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, November 17, 1711
The greatest cunning is to have none at all.
CARL SANDBURG
The Sandburg Range
Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The Idler, No. 92
That's the common fate of your Machiavellians; they draw their designs so subtle that their very fineness breaks them.
JOHN DRYDEN
Sir Martin Mar-All
Don't think so much of your own Cunning, as to forget other Men's: A cunning Man is overmatch'd by a cunning Man and a Half.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1754
And our hearts are cunning
(Like a lizard in the sun)
When they want something
(Like poison, pink wonton)
Throw you under a bus
Grind your teeth to dust
You hide in the dark
And you suck your thumb
MAN MAN
"Pink Wonton"