O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?

O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?

Some hypocrites and seeming mortified men, that held down their
heads, were like the little images that they place read more

Some hypocrites and seeming mortified men, that held down their
heads, were like the little images that they place in the very
bowing of the vaults of churches, that look as if they held up
the church, but are but puppets.

Hypocrisy in anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it, read more

Hypocrisy in anything whatever may deceive the cleverest and most penetrating man, but the least wide-awake of children recognizes it, and is revolted by it, however ingeniously it may be disguised

It is easy for men to talk one thing and think another.

It is easy for men to talk one thing and think another.

How inexpressible is the meanness of being a hypocrite! how
horrible is it to be a mischievous and malignant read more

How inexpressible is the meanness of being a hypocrite! how
horrible is it to be a mischievous and malignant hypocrite.
- Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire),

A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself. He would make a dupe of himself read more

A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself. He would make a dupe of himself too, if he could.

Let me be cruel, not unnatural;
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
My tongue read more

Let me be cruel, not unnatural;
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites:
How in my words somever she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent!

We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and read more

We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach.

Thus 'tis with all; their chief and constant care
Is to seem everything but what they are.

Thus 'tis with all; their chief and constant care
Is to seem everything but what they are.