Ruse Quotes

“La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu'il n'existe pas."

("The devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist.")”
― Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen

“It is so much more threatening to have something out of hand than to believe that at any moment I can stop (I started to say "This foolishness") any time I need to. When I wrote the previous letter, I had made up my mind I would show you how I could be very composed and cool and not need to ask you to listen to me nor to explain anything to me nor need any help. By telling you that all this about the multiple personalities was not really true but just put on, I could show, or so I thought, that I did not need you. Well, it would have been easier if it were put on. But the only ruse of which I'm guilty is to have pretended for so long before coming to you that nothing was wrong. Pretending that the personalities did not exist has now caused me to lose about two days.
Three weeks later Sybil reaffirmed her belief in the existence of her other selves in a letter to Miss Updyke, the school nurse of undergraduate days.”
― Flora Rheta Schreiber, Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities

“We worked through the “alien abduction” memory and discovered that the “spaceship” was parked in the courtyard of the cult training centre. An insider had been instructed that if the survivor began to remember the ritual abuse, she was to make her remember the alien abduction, so that nobody would believe her account of the ritual abuse. This programme did not work in this case, but you can imagine the larger consequences of such a ruse.”
― Alison Miller, Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse

“In my client who had confessed her “alien abduction” experience, an alter had been instructed that if she began to remember the ritual abuse she was to remember the alien abduction, so that nobody would believe her account of the ritual abuse. This program did not work with us, but you can imagine the larger consequences of such a ruse.
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― Alison Miller, Healing the Unimaginable: Treating Ritual Abuse and Mind Control

“ut a liquid fiery videatur

Action taken for the sake of appearances”
― Anonymous

“Strive not with a man that is full of tongue, and heap not wood upon his fire. Jest not with a rude man, lest thine ancestors be disgraced”
― Sirach

“L'homme plein de haine donne le change par ses paroles, au-dedans de lui il prépare des tromperies. Quand il parle aimablement, ne t'y fie pas, car il a l'esprit plein de pensées détestables. Il est assez rusé pour dissimuler sa haine, mais tout le monde finit par découvrir sa méchanceté.”
― Anonymous, Proverbs

“I’m not…in love with you,” she said slowly. “You know that, right? It’s all a ruse, a joke.”
― Allie Sarah

“For a woman who had been tortured and tormented for months, I looked remarkably well.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Wings and Ruin

“I glanced between the grass and the crowd and the cluster of musicians coaxing such lively music from drums and fiddles and pipes as I approached, no more than a shy, hesitant doe.

Once, those same sounds had shaken me awake, had made me dance and dance. I supposed they were now little more than weapons in my arsenal as I stopped before Tamlin, lowered my lashes, and asked softly, 'Will you dance with me?'

Relief, happiness, and a slight edge of concern. 'Yes,' he breathed. 'Yes, of course.'

So I let him lead me into the swift dance, spinning and tilting me, people gathering to cheer and clap. Dance after dance after dance, until sweat was running down my back as I worked to keep up, keep that smile on my face, to remember to laugh when my hands were within strangling distance of his throat.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Wings and Ruin

“His red hair gleamed in the faint firelight a moment later as he shoved through the flaps and swore. 'Maybe I should sleep out there.'

I rolled my eyes. 'Please.'

A way, considering glance as he knelt and removed his boots. 'You know Tamlin can be... sensitive about things.'

'He can also be a pain in my ass,' I snapped, and slithered under the blankets. 'If you yield to him on every bit of paranoia and territorialism, you'll just make it worse.'

Lucien unbuttoned his jacket but remained mostly dressed as he slid onto his sleeping roll. 'I think it's made worse because you two haven't... I mean, you haven't, right?'

I stiffened, tugging the blanket tighter onto my shoulders. 'No. I don't want to be touched like that- not for a while.'

His silence was heavy- sad. I hated the lie, hated it for how filthy it felt to wield it. 'I'm sorry,' he said. And I wondered what else he was apologising for as I faced him in the darkness of our tent.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Wings and Ruin

“If there is no intent to act on the intent, you have a ruse of the most intentional sort.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“You played us." His teeth ground together. He could love the result and still hate the method of it.”
― Megan Van Dyke, The Alice Curse