Knave Quotes

No man is so much a fool as not to have wit enough sometimes to be a knave; nor any so cunning a knave as not to have the weakness sometimes to play the fool. ~ George Savile

You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage,
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass,
For nought but provender; and when he's old, cashier'd:
Whip me such honest knaves. ~ William Shakespeare

Saying something is far too simple is a doubter's way or trying to make the world more complex so he won't have answers. ~ Adam P. Knave

It is, therefore, a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave. ~ David Hume

If yee would know a knave, give him a staffe. ~ George Herbert

I've never been one to mourn the passing of what could have been a promising relationship. When Jeff Knave broke my heart in the ninth grade, I decided then and there that if a guy couldn't see that I was something special, I'd say good-bye with no regrets. Not that I think I'm more special than anyone else, mind you. But if a thing is not meant to be, I figure it's just not part of God's infinite plan. ~ Angela Elwell Hunt

They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man's goods from thieves, but honesty has no defence against superior cunning; and, since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no law to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage. ~ Jonathan Swift

A man of wit could not be a knave or villain. ~ Aphra Behn

With no name attached to it, the place somehow declared itself nowhere and everywhere at the same time ~ Adam P. Knave

Dost thou verily think that the Earl of Birmingham is low enough to plead for his life?' Sir Robert returned angrily, the wrathful blood coloring his handsome face. 'I wouldst scorn in the knowledge that I owed my life and liberty to a scurrilous murderer and knave. Do with me what thou wilt, surly knave, but rest in the knowledge that no plea for mercy shall be wrung from my lips. ~ Alicia A. Willis

A single thought, he considered, could do all sorts of harm. Harm to what, he wasn't sure, but he identified it as harm. ~ Adam P. Knave

For my part, if a man must needs be a knave I would have him a debonair knave... It makes your sin no worse as I conceive, to do it à la mode and stylishly. ~ Anthony Hope

That man is thought a dangerous knave, Or zealot plotting crime, Who for advancement of his kind Is wiser than his time. ~ Douglas William Jerrold

The Man who pretends to be a modest enquirer into the truth of a self-evident thing is a Knave. ~ William Blake

God has punished the knave, and the devil has drowned the rest. ~ Voltaire

Still, the car started, so we drove off to the movies. Popcorn happened. Previews, ads, and an annoying kid all went down like clockwork. The picture started and then ended a while later, the world unchanged by its passing. ~ Adam P. Knave

One day, Methodist circuit rider Jesse Lee downtime self accosted by two lawyers:
"You are a preacher, sir?"
"Yes, I generally pass for one," replied Lee.
"You preach very often, I suppose?"
"Generally every day; frequently twice a day, or more."
"How do you find time to study, when you preach so often?"
"I study when writing," said Lee. "And read when resting," he added, maintaining a smile, though he could see now where they were heading.
The first lawyer feigned incredulity. "But do you not write your sermons?"
"No, not very often, at least."
"Do you not often make mistakes preaching extemporaneously?" the second lawyer queried.
Lee nodded. "I do, sometimes."
"Well, do you correct them?"
"That depends on the character of the mistake. I was preaching the other day, and I went to quote the text, 'All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone,' and by mistake I said, 'All lawyers shall have their part--'"
The first lawyer interrupted him. "What did you do with that? Did you correct it?"
"Oh, no, it was so nearly true I didn't bother."
"Humph!" said one of the lawyers looking at the other, "I don't know whether you are more a knave than a fool!"
Neither," replied Lee smiling, and looking at the one on his right and the one on his left, "I'd say I was just between the two. ~ Peter Marshall

It should seem that indolence itself would incline a person to be honest, as it requires infinitely greater pains and contrivance to be a knave. ~ William Shenstone

Stationer, that Riddlesden, the attorney, was a very knave. ~ Benjamin Franklin

He had always thought her beautiful - for a peasant girl. But with that golden hair falling around her, it made her face and eyes glow like some kind of enchantment. He was thinking like an addle-headed knave. ~ Melanie Dickerson

A king may spille, a king may save; A king may make of lorde a knave; And of a knave a lorde also. ~ John Gower

O heart, be at peace, because
Nor knave nor dolt can break
What's not for their applause,
Being for a woman's sake. ~ William Butler Yeats

He wasn't anti-gun really - he just wasn't pro-being-shot-at. ~ Adam P. Knave

If I get clear of my debts, I care not though men call me bold, glib of tongue, audacious, impudent, shameless, a fabricator of falsehoods, inventor of words, practised in lawsuits, a pettifogger, a rattle, a fox, a sharper, a knave, a dissembler, a slippery fellow, an imposter, a rogue that deserves the cat-o-nine-tails, a blackguard, a twister, a licker-up of hashes; they call all this when they meet me, if they please, I care not. ~ Aristophanes

There's something weird about that guy, she whispers as she slips into the car, bringing an unexpected smile to my face.
Ah, Ariel. Some might say she has poor taste, but I cant help but be flattered.
Take that, knight in shining armor. This lady prefers the knave. ~ Stacey Jay

The Wood is that that makes the gallows tree;
The Weed is that that strings the hangman's bag;
The Wag, my pretty knave, betokens thee. ~ Walter Raleigh

There's never a villain dwelling in all Denmark But he's an arrant knave. ~ William Shakespeare

Everyone outside the Party was a fool or a knave. They wrote up Professor Joad in the Standard, and a gentle reader complained of the epithets - 'ignoramous', 'fathead', etc; the EC informed him that they thought the words precise and correct. ~ Robert Barltrop

HE who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave. ~ George Bishop Berkeley

You ate my dog, you undead freak!"
Hey! Watch the slander. I hear the acceptable term is 'corporeally
challenged' now. No need to be rude. ~ Adam P. Knave

Since the fall of Man and the return of Magery and our older ways, most disputes were settled in a civilized manner: sword to the face, mace to the neck, acceptable societal situational handlers ~ Adam P. Knave

Knavery is the best defense against a knave. ~ Plutarch

Said the Knave, I didn't write it and they can't prove that I did; there's no name signed at the end. ~ Lewis Carroll

A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a
base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,
hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a
lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;
one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a
bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but
the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar,
and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I
will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest
the least syllable of thy addition. ~ William Shakespeare

When a knave is in a plumtree he hath neither friend nor kin. ~ George Herbert

The honest Man takes Pains, and then enjoys Pleasures; the knave takes Pleasure, and then suffers Pains. ~ Benjamin Franklin

A thousand years of torture rule, The knave who dares to harm a fool." I ~ Christopher Moore

And for more egregious offenses, you need to get rid of the knave, quickly. Think ~ Eric Schmidt

A rich man is an honest man
no thanks to him; for he would be a double knave, to cheat mankind when he had no need of it: he has no occasion to press upon his integrity, nor so much as to touch upon the borders of dishonesty. ~ Daniel Defoe

He that cheats another is a knave; but he that cheats himself is a fool. ~ Karl G. Maeser

That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! It might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God, might it not? ~ William Shakespeare

Sometimes life just did things, he felt, and they didn't have to make sense. It helped when they did, and often the sense of a thing was just around a corner, but that didn't mean you ever got to see it. ~ Adam P. Knave

What is this place?"
"Nothing at all. Everywhere there is. Both at once?" Wereberry offered. ~ Adam P. Knave

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, all on a hot summer's day. The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts. The mad Queen said, "Off with his head! Off with his head! Off with his head!" Well ... that's too bad ... no more heads to cut. ~ Jun Mochizuki

By fools, knaves fatten; by bigots, priests are well clothed; every knave finds a gull. ~ Johann Georg Ritter Von Zimmermann

You are not worth another word, else I'd call you knave. ~ William Shakespeare

The person who values community will oft be deceived and destroyed by the knave whose heart lies in selfish ambitions. For ~ R.A. Salvatore

It is far more easy to acquire a fortune like a knave, than to expend it, like a gentleman. ~ Charles Caleb Colton

When the fool supports the knave, the good man may fold his hands. The fool in league with the knave against himself is a combination that none may withstand. Oh, monster of humanity and enlightenment, despairing of a world in which the only natural allies are the fools and knaves, a mankind sterile with self-complicity. ~ Samuel Beckett

In all conditions of life a poor man is a near neighbor to an honest one, and a rich man is as little removed from a knave. ~ Jean De La Bruyere

Ridiculed as "Knox the knave" and "a runagate Scot," he was outlawed and forbidden to preach by the archbishop of St. Andrews, and orders were issued that he be shot on sight if he failed to comply.
Knox did not comply. Years later, a would-be assassin fired a shot through a window of Knox's house in Edinburgh, narrowly missing his mark.? Still Knox preached. ~ Douglas Bond

How easy it is to call rogue and villain, and that wittily! But how hard to make a man appear a fool, a blockhead, or a knave, without using any of those opprobrious terms! Tosparethegrossness ofthenames, and to dothe thing yet moreseverely, isto drawa full face, and tomake the nose and cheeks stand out, and yet not to employ any depth of shadowing. ~ John Dryden

But why insult the poor, affront the great?'
A knave's a knave, to me, in every state. ~ Alexander Pope

Now I will show myselfTo have more of the serpent than the dove;That is
more knave than fool. ~ Christopher Marlowe

There is not on earth so base a knave as the man who wins the love of a woman when he knows that he cannot or ought not to requite it. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

An entirely honest man, in the severe sense of the word, exists no more than an entirely dishonest knave; the best and the worst are only approximations to those qualities. Who are those that never contradict themselves? yet honesty never contradicts itself. Who are they that always contradict themselves? yet knavery is mere self-contradiction. Thus the knowledge of man determines not the things themselves, but their proportions, the quantum of congruities and incongruities. ~ Johann Kaspar Lavater

As happens in dreams, when a perfectly harmless object inspires us with fear and thereafter is frightening every time we dream of it (and even in real life retains disquieting overtones), so Dreyer's presence became for Franz a refined torture, an implacable menace. [ ... H]e could not help cringing when, with a banging of doors in a dramatic draft, Martha and Dreyer entered simultaneously from two different rooms as if on a too harshly lit stage. Then he snapped to attention and in this attitude felt himself ascending through the ceiling, through the roof, into the black-brown sky, while, in reality, drained and empty, he was shaking hands with Martha, with Dreyer. He dropped back on his feet out of that dark nonexistence, from those unknown and rather silly heights, to land firmly in the middle of the room (safe, safe!) when hearty Dreyer described a circle with his index finger and jabbed him in the navel; Franz mimicked a gasp and giggled; and as usual Martha was coldly radiant. His fear did not pass but only subsided temporarily: one incautious glance, one eloquent smile, and all would be revealed, and a disaster beyond imagination would shatter his career. Thereafter whenever he entered this house, he imagined that the disaster had happened - that Martha had been found out, or had confessed everything in a fit of insanity or religious self-immolation to her husband; and the drawing room chandelier invariably met him with a sinister refulgence. ~ Vladimir Nabokov

Titles are marks of honest men, and wise; The fool or knave that wears a title lies. ~ Edward Young

The same ambition can destroy or save, and make a patriot as it makes a knave. ~ Alexander Pope

Earth bears no balsams for mistakes;
Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool
That did his will: but thou, O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool. ~ Edward Rowland Sill

I do not pretend to give such a sum; I only lend it to you. When you shall return to your country with a good character, you cannot fail of getting into some business, that will in time enable you to pay all your debts. In that case, when you meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me by lending this sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with such another opportunity. I hope it may thus go through many hands, before it meets with a knave that will stop its progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Cardinal Mazarin was a great knave, but no great man; much more cunning than able; scandalously false and dirtily greedy. ~ Lord Chesterfield

Not able to stop it, I felt a small smile tilt up the corners of my mouth. "Noted. Althought I must protest that you keep forcing unwanted kisses on me."
"It's the only way to get one. Unwanted indeed." He raised a knowing eyebrow at me. Arrogant Knave. I shook my head, feeling sad and happy all at the same time. "Why do you persist, Wolfe?"
His grin was slow and wicked as he stood back from me, allowing my body and mind to breathe again. "Strategy."
"Strategy?"
He cocked his eyebrow. "At first I thought imposed isolation would make you miss me-"
"Why you arro-"
"-But then I realised that it's being near me you can't resist. And there are only so many kisses you'll take before you give in to me completely, Rogan. ~ Samantha Young

Revenge is a debt, in the paying of which the greatest knave is honest and sincere, and, so far as he is able, punctual. ~ Charles Caleb Colton

Who friendship with a knave hath made, Is judged a partner in the trade. ~ John Gay

An honest man, sir, is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not. ~ William Shakespeare

My curse on plays
That have to be set up in fifty ways,
On the day's war with every knave and dolt,
Theater business, management of men. ~ William Butler Yeats

Necessity makes an honest man a knave. ~ Daniel Defoe

My first lead role was a stage play called 'A Kestrel for a Knave'. I was 11. ~ Justin Chadwick

The King and Queen of Hearts were seated on their throne when they arrived, with a great crowd assembled about them
all sorts of little birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards: the Knave was standing before them, in chains, with a soldier on each side to guard him; and near the King was the White Rabbit, with a trumpet in one hand, and a scroll of parchment in the other. In the very middle of the court was a table, with a large dish of tarts upon it: they looked so good, that it made Alice quite hungry to look at them
'I wish they'd get the trial done,' she thought, 'and hand round the refreshments!' But there seemed to be no chance of this, so she began looking at everything about her, to pass away the time. ~ Lewis Carroll

Lussurioso: "Welcome, be not far off, we must be better acquainted. Push, be bold with us, thy hand!"
Vindice: "With all my heart, i'faith. How dost, sweet musk-cat?
When shall we lie together?"
Lussurioso: (aside) "Wondrous knave!
Gather him into boldness? 'Sfoot, the slave's
Already as familiar as an ague,
And shakes me at his pleasure!
Friend, I can
Forget myself in private, but elsewhere,
I pray do you remember be."
Vindice: "Oh, very well, sir.
I conster myself saucy."
Lussurioso: "What hast been? What profession?"
Vindice: "A bone-setter."
Lussurioso: "A bone-setter!"
Vindice: "A bawd, my lord, one that sets bones together."
Lussurioso: (aside) "Notable bluntness! ~ Thomas Middleton

He felt like his own heart might stop beating just from acknowledging the concept. The sadness, the sorrow, and the loss, they were living things, funnily enough. ~ Adam P. Knave

I've been a foul-mouthed knave." "Well, I don't know." "A beetle-headed malfeasor." "Nothing so - " "A base, proud tottyhead." He paused, but she said nothing. "Aren't you going to object?" "No," she drawled the word. "Humility is so refreshing in a man. ~ Christina Dodd

I said you lie, knave!" shouted Beaumains, drawing his sword. "And for telling such craven falsehoods, you must die!"
The knight looked plaintively at Roger. "What's wrong with this fellow?"
He was dropped on his head when he was a baby," answered Roger. ~ Gerald Morris

It might be argued, that to be a knave is the gift of fortune, but to play the fool to advantage it is necessary to be a learned man. ~ William Hazlitt

Better be a foole then a knave.
[Better be a fool than a knave.] ~ George Herbert

Nobody rose in Packingtown by doing good work. You could lay that down for a rule - if you met a man who was rising in Packingtown, you met a knave. That man who had been sent to Jurgis' father by the boss, he would rise; the man who told tales and spied upon his fellows would rise; but the man who minded his own business and did his work - why, they would "speed him up" till they had worn him out, and then they would throw him into the gutter. ~ Upton Sinclair

The great chastisement of a knave is not to be known, but to know himself. ~ Jean Antoine Petit-Senn

And quit saying my name like that!"
"Like what, Jillian?" He sounded genuinely curious.
"Like . . . like . . . a prayer or something."
"As you wish." He paused the length of two heartbeats--during which she was astonished he'd capitulated to her will, because he certainly never had before--then he added with such husky resonance that it slipped inside her heart without her consent, "Jillian."
Perish the man! "Guards. Guards!"
Her guards arrived on a run, then halted abruptly, studying the man standing before their mistress.
"Milady, you summoned?" Hatchard inquired.
"Remove this iniquitous scoundrel from Caithness before he breeds . . . bring"--she corrected herself hastily--"his depravity and wicked insolence into my home," she sputtered to a finish.
The guards looked from her to Grimm and didn't move.
"Now. Remove him from the estate at once!"
When the guards still didn't move, her temper rose a notch. "Hatchard, I said make him leave. By the sweet saints, toss him out of my life. Banish him from the country. Och! Just remove him from this world, will you, now?"
The flank of guards stared at Jillian with openmouthed astonishment. "Are you feeling well, milady?" Hatchard asked. "Should we fetch Kaley to see if you've a touch of the fever?"
"I don't have a touch of anything. There's a degenerate knave on my estate and I want him off it," Jillian said through gritted teeth.
"Did you just grit?" Hatchard gaped.
Karen Marie Moning

Am I thy looking-glass that thou callest me knave? ~ Oscar Wilde

men crown the knave and scourge the tool that did his will ~ Edward Rowland Sill

We are no more free agents than the queen of clubs when she victoriously takes prisoner the knave of hearts. ~ Mary Wortley Montagu

Talk about an ideal democracy! In the realm of time there is no aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is never rewarded by even an extra hour a day. And there is no punishment. Waste your infinitely precious commodity as much as you will, and the supply will never be withheld from you. No mysterious power will say: - "This man is a fool, if not a knave. He does not deserve time; he shall be cut off at the meter." It is more certain than consols, and payment of income is not affected by Sundays. Moreover, you cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste to-morrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you ~ Arnold Bennett

A man who first tried to guess 'what the public wants,' and then preached that as Christianity because the public wants it, would be a pretty mixture of fool and knave ~ C.S. Lewis

Truth, an objective thing, is usually conceived of as something simple. Quite the opposite is correct: truth is enormously complicated; it calls for effort on several levels to arrive at its definition; it demands the utmost devotion in its service.
Do you doubt it? Then resolve evermore to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. You must hurt your friends, suffer the most pitiless scrutiny and persecution, turn the festive occasion into a nightmare of share words and recriminations. You will be called "a sour-puss," a curmudgeon, a difficult man, and very possibly a knave and an untruthful braggart.
The world, as it is organized, is a conspiracy against truth. Individuals, communities, nations, they are all afraid of the truth as if it were a medusa head which froze men to stone, even as it froze them to virtue. ~ Francis Beauchesne Thornton

He who cheats others is a knave, but he who cheats himself is a fool. ~ Karl G. Maeser