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Sincerity is the way of heaven.
CONFUCIUS, The Wisdom of Confucius
Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES, The Principles of Success in Literature
Sincerity is the key which will open the door through which you will see your separate parts, and you will see something quite new. You must go on trying to be sincere. Each day you put on a mask, and you must take it off little by little.
G.I. GURDJIEFF, Views From the Real World
Sincerity does not and cannot substitute for truth.
JIMMY PRITCHARD, Calling Down the Fire
Sincerity: if you can fake it, you’ve got it made.
DANIEL SCHORR, International Herald Tribune, May 18, 1992
Sincerity is impossible, unless it pervade the whole being, and the pretence of it saps the very foundation of character.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, Lectures on English Poets
Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON, "Friendship," Essays
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
OSCAR WILDE, The Critic as Artist
Sincerity is an openness of heart; we find it in very few people; what we usually see is only an artful dissimulation to win the confidence of others.
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Reflections
We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.
G.K. CHESTERTON, Heretics
Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.
CHARLES SPURGEON, Mickey Connolly's The Communication Catalyst
Sincerity is always subject to proof.
JOHN F. KENNEDY, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961
Sincerity may be humble but she cannot be servile.
LORD BYRON, letter, May 29, 1823
When sincerity fails, the offer of money usually works.
MARK FUHRMAN, Murder in Brentwood
You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a fruit fly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer’s heart.
FRED ALLEN, John Robert Colombo's Popcorn in Paradise
Teach French and unteach sincerity.
LEO TOLSTOY, Anna Karenina
Sincerity doesn't mean anything. A person can be sincere and be more destructive than a person who is insincere.
EDWARD ALBEE, Wagner Literary Magazine, 1962
I would replace the quality of sincerity with honesty, since one can hold a conviction sincerely without examining it, while honesty would require that one subject one's convictions to frequent scrutiny.
CHRISTOPHER PHILLIPS, Socrates Cafe
There should be more sincerity and heart in human relations, more silence and simplicity in our interactions. Be rude when you’re angry, laugh when something is funny, and answer when you’re asked.
ANTON CHEKHOV, letter to A.P. Chekhov, Oct. 13, 1888
Sincerity, even if it speaks with a stutter, will sound eloquent when inspired.
Sincerity is a high quality, but its virtues are only efficacious when discreetly applied. Human beings, at the best, are but bundles of prejudices and humours, which it will not do to cut through too abruptly, lest the ties which bind them to ourselves be also severed, and the friendship of years fall to pieces in a day. The prudent surgeon, at the same time that he exerts his skill to excise, is careful not to lacerate, lest the patient die of mortification. In order to be sincere, it is not necessary to say the whole of what we think: enough that we do not, for the sake of being agreeable, say that which we feel to be untrue. In our most intimate friends there are numerous failings which we have no right to point out, manifold weaknesses we must not make weaker by tearing; and although we are wise to look as deeply into a well as our perceptions will allow us, there may be a thousand little truths at the bottom which it would be cruel to fish up.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAY, The Maxims, Experiences, and Observations of Agogos
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