The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he;
His time is spent.
As is the bud bit with an envious worm,
Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.
In the sweetest bud
The eating canker dwells.
I shall be like that tree,—I shall die at the top.
Fires that shook me once, but now to silent ashes fall'n away.
Cold upon the dead volcano sleeps the gleam of dying day.
| author = Tennyson
- DECEIT ##
DECEIT
God is not averse to deceit in a holy cause.
There is a cunning which we in England call the turning of the cat in the pan.
Think'st thou there are no serpents in the world
But those who slide along the grassy sod,
And sting the luckless foot that presses them?
There are who in the path of social life
Do bask their spotted skins in Fortune's sun,
And sting the soul.
What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women.
If the world will be gulled, let it be gulled.
Populus vult decipi; decipiatur.
The people wish to be deceived; let them be deceived.
Cardinal Carafa, Legate of Paul IV., is said to have used this expression in reference to the devout Parisians. Origin in De Thou. I. XVII. See Jackson's Works. Bk. III. Ch. XXXII. Note 9.
Improbi hominis est mendacio fallere.
It is the act of a bad man to deceive by falsehood.
Cicero—Oratio Pro Murena. XXX.
A delusion, a mockery, and a snare.
Lord Denman—O'Connell vs. The Queen. Clark and Finnelly Reports. </poem>
But Esau's hands suit ill with Jacob's voice.
Dryden—Absalom and Achitopel. Pt. I. L. 982.
15
Man wird betrogen, man betriigt sich selbst. We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves. Goethe—Spriiche in Prosa. III.
16
Non mancano pretesti quando si vuole.
Pretexts are not wanting when one wishes to use them. Goldoni—La Villeggiatura. I. 12.
17
Which I wish to remark—
And my language is plain,—That for ways that are dark
And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar.
Bret Harte—Plain Language from Truthful James. (Heathen Chinee.)
The angel answer'd, "Nay, sad soul; go higher! To be deceived in your true heart's desire Was bitterer than a thousand years of fire!"
John Hay—A Woman's Love.
Hateful to me as are the gates of hell,
Is he who, hiding one thing in his heart,
Utters another.
Vous le croyez votre dupe: s'il feint de l'etre, qui est plus dupe, de lui ou de vous?
You think him to be your dupe; if he feigns to be so who is the greater dupe, he or you? La Bruyère—Les Caractères. V.
21
On ne trompe point en bien; la fourberie ajoute la malice au mensonge.
We never deceive for a good purpose: knavery adds malice to falsehood. La Bruyère—Les Caractères. XI.
22
Car e'est double plaisir de tromper le trompeur. It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver. La Fontaine—Fables. II. 15.
23
Le bruit est pour le fat, la plainte pour le sot; L'honnete homme trompe' s'eloigne et ne dit mot. The silly when deceived exclaim loudly; the
fool complains; the honest man walks away
and is silent.
La Noue—La Coquette Corrigie. I. 3.
On peut etre plus fin qu'un autre, mais non pas plus fin que tous les autres.
One may outwit another, but not all the others.
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.
