All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance. Oscar Wilde
The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived. René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
Part of the art of bowling spin is to make the batsman think something special is happening when it isn’t. Shane Warne
To know when to use the truth is the essence of successful deception. Agatha Christie
The Washington leadership has put aside non-proliferation programmes and devoted its energies and resources to driving the country to war by extraordinary deceit, then trying to manage the catastrophe it created in Iraq. Noam Chomsky
I think President Obama is trying to deceive the public in pretending that he was not a part of Congress that has made some decisions in the past that got us to where we are today. Sarah Palin
I’ve come to learn that the determined and gifted and genuine sociopath has far more power to deceive than we realize. Walter Kirn
Once again our cricketers have flattered to deceive in Australia. Ted Dexter
One deceit needs many others, and so the whole house is built in the air and must soon come to the ground. Baltasar Gracian
In 1994, 13-year-old Nicholas Barclay disappeared from San Antonio, Texas. Three years and four months after the disappearance: Linares Spain October 7 1997. The Imposter 2012, caption, Channel 4 2013
My wife and I are here as tourists. We’ve found a kid. ibid. police call
I said that I was American. That I run away. ibid. imposter
This is a tale of a master imposter who managed to lie his way into the United States and prey upon the most vulnerable of people. ibid. news
How could I be so fucking stupid? ibid. sister
Frederic Bourdin was convicted of perjury and fraudulently obtaining a passport. He was sentenced to six years in prison. Bourdin was deported to France in October 2003. Three months later he attempted to steal the identity of missing 14 year old Leo Balley. ibid.
Some people cannot believe that a magician can fool them in such a way that they can’t figure it out. But magicians can and magicians do ... They’re not magicians, they’re fakes ... You can be deceived. Storyville: Exposed: Magicians, Psychics & Frauds, BBC 2015
I’ve always had my battle with the psychics ... people who are stealing money from the public, cheating them and misinforming them. That’s the kind of thing I’ve been fighting all my life. ibid.
A good magician needs to be a little bit of a conman, I think, he needs to be a criminal type but not have enough guts to rob banks. ibid.
It is almost always the cover-up rather than the event that causes trouble. Howard Baker
Every year countless Europeans and Americans are fleeced of thousands, tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars each. They all believe that they are going to make millions of dollars by hiding and transiting money ... Once hooked, the mugu is asked for ever greater sums. Misha Glenny, McMafia
Hiding the truth from the conscious mind the better to hide it from others. In our own species we recognize that shifty eyes, sweaty palms and croaky voices may indicate the stress that accompanies conscious knowledge of attempted deception. By becoming unconscious of its deception, the deceiver hides these signs from the observer. He or she can lie without the nervousness that accompanies deception. Robert Trivers, Social Evolution
You see these Liberals and Tories understand the sort of people they have to deal with; they know that although their bodies are the bodies of grown men, their minds are the minds of little children … That is why it has been possible to deceive and bluff and rob them for so long. Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
I am now fluent in all the deceptive arts – I could work for FIFA. Red Dwarf s11e3: Give and Take, BBC 2016
What if we were to discover that the attitudes of these professionals have taken a turn toward the darker side? … Where the consumer is the unwitting guinea pig for the testing of profit-making pharmaceuticals. Phenomenon: The Lost Archives: Science Fraud: Is the Tail Wagging the Dog? 1998
In a gravel bed near Lewis England what appears to be the skull of an ancient human being … The discovery of the Piltdown man … One of the greatest deceptions of all time. ibid.
One group of industry-sponsored scientists stands behind their shameless ‘conclusive research’ that cigarette smoking is in no way harmful to human health. ibid.
Farewell (not fond) to cold fusion ibid. Nature vol 344 article
In the case of Cold Fusion the fraud perpetrated against Pons and Fleischmann by the scientific community has cost the people of the world fifteen years of the development of a technology that would mean a virtually unlimited source of clean free energy. ibid.
Playing God with his patients. Botching surgery. Performing needless operations. And putting lives at risk. For more than a decade Ian Paterson wreaked havoc in NHS and private hospitals. In this programme the catalogue of complaints and warnings that could have stopped the Butcher Surgeon earlier. The Butcher Surgeon: Why Wasn’t He Stopped? Channel 5 2017
Guilty of wounding with intent on all charges. ibid.
Arrogant, aggressive and a bully. ibid.
In many cases there was nothing wrong with them. ibid.
Don’t you think one of the charms of marriage is it makes deception a necessity for both parties? Eyes Wide Shut 1999 starring Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman & Sydney Pollack & Marie Richardson & Todd Field & Sky du Mont & Vinessa Shaw & Rade Serbedzija & Fay Masterson & Leelee Sobieski & Alan Cumming & Leon Vitali & Julienne Davis & Thomas Gibson et al, director Stanley Kubrick, Hungarian geezer
My expertise is in deception … It offends me when someone takes the skills of my honest living [magician] if you will and uses it to twist and distort and manipulate people and their sense of reality and how the world works. Merchants of Doubt, Jamie Swiss, 2014
Global warming is a hoax … There is no consensus. This is a myth.’ ibid. politicians
These guys are rich, they’re politically powerful and they’re mean. ibid. anti-tobacco campaigner
Flame retardants in your house: they don’t protect you from anything. ibid. woman
Global warming is now large enough that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship to the greenhouse effect. ibid. Jim Hansen
All of the papers that had been published since 1992 to 2002 that had used the keywords ‘global climate change’. And then we read them. The question was, how many of those papers disagreed that most of the observed warming is due to increase in greenhouse gas concentrations? … We found nothing. ibid. educational scientist
I consider myself primarily a scientist. ibid. Fred Singer, sceptic
All of this is a political debate about the role of government. ibid. educational scientist
Citizens for fire safety was a front group. ibid. investigator
The means and goals of military deception are essentially the same. Secrets of War s1e9: Tools of Deception, History 1998
By the Second World War camouflage was an accepted facet of tactical planning … Both sides instituted massive civil camouflage programmes. ibid.
Perhaps the most widely and effectively used decoys were fake tanks. ibid.
The decoy itself evolved … inflatable decoys were quite convincing. ibid.
Fake airfields were fabricated. ibid.
Disinformation: the deliberate manipulation of truths, half-truths and lies … Leaflets: they could be packed in special artillery shells and fired over enemy lines. ibid.
Both sides used radio to spread propaganda. ibid.
The British assumed that the discovery of a body of a British officer would be brought to the attention of the Nazis. ibid.
Deception has always been a vital part of military warfare. It’s often been the basis of stunning victories. It can save equipment and lives, reducing the cost of victory. Modern deception came of age in the planning rooms and on the battlefields of World War II. Secrets of War s2e21: Battlefield Deceptions