Sayings about Pretending
You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep. ~ Navajo Proverb
Pretend to be dead and the bull will leave you alone. ~ Portuguese Proverbs
Pretend that you are crazy, you will live. ~ Tunisian Proverbs
Be wise, but pretend to be ignorant. ~ Russian Proverbs
If you want to know who your friends are, lie by the roadside and pretend to be drunk. ~ Jamaican Proverbs
Who can’t pretend cannot govern. ~ French Proverb
To pretend to satisfy one’s desires with worldly goods is like using straw to put out a fire. ~ Chinese Proverb
Quotations about Pretending
To pretend is to behave as if something is true when you know that it is not, especially in order to deceive people. ~ Definition Source
If we suspect that a man is lying, we should pretend to believe him; for then he becomes bold and assured, lies more vigorously, and is unmasked. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
Most people have seen worse things in private than they pretend to be shocked at in public. ~ Edgar Watson Howe
It is not good to see people who have been pretending strength all their lives lose it even for a minute. ~ Lillian Hellman
Who can direct when all pretend to know? ~ Oliver Goldsmith
It’s amazing how many things you can do when you’re just pretending. ~ Kim Gordon
Modesty: the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it. ~ Oliver Herford
Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command. ~ Alan Watts
We may pretend that we’re basically moral people who make mistakes, but the whole of history proves otherwise. ~ Terry Hands
Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, “Make me feel important.” Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life. ~ Mary Kay Ash
When one is pretending the entire body revolts. ~ Anais Nin
China is a civilization pretending to be a nation. ~ Michael Ledeen
I can’t pretend that I’m brave and that I can beat the whole world. ~ Nelson Mandela
If you would be powerful, pretend to be powerful. ~ Horne Tooke
Pretense is the overrating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to. ~ Jonathan Swift
It is always self-defeating to pretend to the style of a generation younger than your own; it simply erases your own experience in history. ~ Renata Adler
We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear. ~ Charles Caleb Colton
Some people have a difficult time facing truth and reality. They prefer to live in a make-believe world, pretending that certain things aren’t happening. ~ Joyce Meyer
I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men; they are far superior and always have been. ~ William Golding
What is it in us that makes us feel the need to keep pretending… we gotta let ourselves be. ~ Christina Aguilera
A liberal pretending to be a conservative? That’s like a straight person pretending to be gay to get greater acceptance. ~ David Mamet
Virtue must be valuable, if men and women of all degrees pretend to have it. ~ Edgar Watson Howe
Nobody’s perfect, and to try to pretend you’re perfect is an exhausting fool’s errand. ~ Rosemary Mahoney
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. ~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Always keep that happy attitude. Pretend that you are holding a beautiful fragrant bouquet. ~ Earl Nightingale
The great and almost only comfort about being a woman is that one can always pretend to be more stupid than one is and no one is surprised. ~ Freya Stark
Life’s like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending. ~ Jim Henson
The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be. ~ Socrates
The whole business is built on ego, vanity, self-satisfaction, and it’s total crap to pretend it’s not.~ George Michael
The surest way to lose truth is to pretend that one already wholly possesses it. ~ Gordon W. Allport
It is foolish to pretend that one is fully recovered from a disappointed passion. Such wounds always leave a scar. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I don’t pretend to understand the Universe — it’s a great deal bigger than I am. ~ Thomas Carlyle
Being is like pretending. ~ Mira Sorvino
I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of. ~ Clarence Darrow
Pretending that we live doesn’t make us alive. ~ Serj Tankian
Whoever you pretend to be, you must face yourself eventually. ~ Al Stewart
If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn’t. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism. ~ Oscar Wilde
Acting is a nice childish profession – pretending you’re someone else and, at the same time, selling yourself. ~ Katharine Hepburn
To be in front of an audience and pretending, and to lie, this is the principle of acting. ~ Roberto Benigni
