Best Quotes from A Treasury Of Deception by Michael Farquhar with Page Numbers

"Those who are desperate to believe can then cram into them an almost infinite amount of meaning and truth."

"The trick, perhaps best articulated by noted debunker James 'The Amazing' Randi, is to make lots of pronouncements, cage them in ambiguous language, and use as much symbolism and allegory as possible."

"Amazingly enough, the money kept coming, in ever increasing amounts."

"America presupposes an optimistic view of itself and life’s possibilities, especially the possibility of getting rich."

"In a world of illusions, those who create convincing narratives harness the power of belief."

"Hartzell was creating theater, a believable yet entirely illusory world, and he plucked its dominant imaginative fabric—the contingency, the chance event—from the air around him."

"Absurdly difficult to disprove, hence its genius."

"He had discovered a great way to keep the law away."

"There’s a sucker born every minute."

"The whole deal would have been fixed up by now if it weren’t for that bunch of racketeers they sent over from Washington."

‘Jimmy’s World’ was in essence a fabrication.

Journalism is a noble profession but it can also attract the most ambitious and the untruthful.

He was consumed by blind and raw ambition.

The jugular of journalism lay exposed—the faith an editor has to place in a reporter.

I believed it, we published it. Official questions had been raised, but we stood by the story and her.

Today, in facing up to the truth, I have submitted my resignation.

We at this newspaper feel at once angry, chagrined, misused ourselves.

One of these episodes is one too many.

The whole fabricated story began to crumble.

We are determined to maintain and honor the highest standards of straight and fair reporting.

All warfare is based on deception.

His plan to defeat the enemy was to become one of them.

Know enemy, know self; one hundred battles, one hundred victories.

I determined to see if anything could be accomplished by negotiations.

And now, I declare, my coming will be gain to you, but loss—and that the severest—to Darius and his army.

In warfare, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

The boldest game of bluff on record... for cool audacity, it excels all history or imagination.

It was a simple ploy, but it was enough to fool the Union commander.

Let them speculate. We are content to wait on events.

The Germans appear to expect landings elsewhere.

A wise ruler cannot and should not keep his word when such an observance of faith would be to his disadvantage.

He who has known best how to employ the fox has succeeded best.

To correspond to our own empire and so that the supreme pontifical authority may not be dishonored by a temporal ruler in Rome, 'Constantine' supposedly gave the pope and his successors… that city, 'but all the provinces, districts, and cities of Italy and the Western regions.'

The aim of the King of England is as incomprehensible as the causes by which he is moved are futile.

Certainty of the debt that he has had to repay to his nation requires the greatest energy.

Henry agrees with Wolsey’s plan that he should be sent to Calais under color of hearing the grievances of both parties.

History allows us to see the ease with which the populace can fall victim to fraud.

A long period of peace would not do us any good.

The victor will not be asked afterward whether he told the truth or not.

Which being done, to be led to the public courtyard of Sainte-Croix of that town, to be tied to a stake on a pile of wood... and there his body to be burned alive.

Seekers of the truth follow the rigid requirements of the Scientific Method.

Through the ages, their deceptions have sometimes stalled human progress—or at least made a mockery of it.

The prospect of fame, sure to accompany such an amazing discovery, intoxicated Beringer to such an extent that he ignored other, far more rational explanations.

One scientist called it 'the most troubled chapter' in the study of man’s origins.

The deception 'was nothing short of despicable,' an ugly trick played by a warped and unscrupulous mind on unsuspecting scholars.

He gushed, 'God, the Father of Nature, would fill our minds with His praises and perfections radiating from these wondrous effects...'

Order and method have proven that clarity can emerge from chaos.

Just as characters in fiction can highlight truths about humanity, so too can history teach us about the nature of belief and deception.

A humble spirit is essential for genuine scientific progress.

In the relentless pursuit of knowledge, one must always guard against the seduction of glory over the truth.

"Man’s capacity to create has many expressions."

"A powerful need to believe has obscured even scientific certainty."

"A clever forger does not necessarily make a compelling playwright."

"Even the most brilliant forgeries lack something essential, like the soul of a master."

"It is unbelievable that it fooled me."

"A truly great forgery requires the soul of a master."

"What if all the medieval hucksters who claimed to have a piece of the true cross really did?"

"The opportunity to have him on the record for a sanctioned book was enough to prompt a publishing feeding frenzy."

"Even an angry phone call from Howard Hughes himself failed to raise red flags."

"I have lived a full and, perhaps, what may seem like a strange life—even to myself."

Evil thrives on lies, the most malignant of which have metastasized throughout nations—even the world—with devastating consequences.

A fuller account would, sadly, occupy volumes.

And to think it all flowed from one stupid little story.

People who pretend to save the Czech nation actually poison it with base, incongruent lies and ignorance.

The very essence of womanhood was transformed into something evil during the witchcraze.

All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which in women is insatiable.

The witchcraze was the greatest mass killing of people by people not caused by war.

People always have been and they always will be stupid victims of deceit and self-deception in politics.

It makes a worse impression than it did in 1933.

History has rendered its verdict on the great lie that once threatened to take over the globe.

The human spirit’s resistance to confinement has been manifested over time by the remarkable ingenuity and determination people have used to overcome it.

Concerned that they would be robbed of their expected ransom money if Amphiretus died, the pirates released him from close confinement and allowed him to exercise outside in the hope that this might restore his health.

Deception was a key element in many of history’s greatest escapes.

My cry was soon heard, for I could hear a man saying to another, that he had traveled a long way and had been standing there two hours, and he would like to get somewhere to sit down.

I resolved to submit to the will of God, and under the influence of that impression, I lifted my soul in prayer to God, who alone, was able to deliver me.

Even if it did fail, “it would still make a damn good story.”

The resourcefulness of the officers was extraordinary. Almost any available item became a tool of escape.

Whatever obstacles stood in their way, these individuals crafted their own paths to freedom.

Everything was set; all that was needed now was an incredible amount of good luck.

Determined to escape, they turned their confinement into opportunities for creativity and innovation.

"What fools these mortals be!" —WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

"And what a joy is in the complete abandon of [the fairies’] little graceful figures as they let themselves go in the dance!"

"It has long seemed to me, that Sir Arthur’s mentality is much more that of Watson than it is of Holmes."

"Copy the joke and it ceases to be one—any fool can imitate an example once set."

"We thought, this is the greatest moment of our lives."

"The Cottingley faeries became a national fascination."

"It turns out Vicary never published his findings in any scholarly journal."

"To stand slightly above their fellow man and, like Puck or Alan Funt, watch him wiggle under the thumb of outrageous circumstance."

"By Jove, Farnsworth! It’s a rhinoceros!"

"In the future, any requests from your institution will of necessity be closely screened and documented."