Pretense Quotes

“I live there...

where the birds are infinite
everywhere

where they flee
it's a place your eyes can wander
but never see

Where everyone accepts me,
Without any pretense

It's a place your mind can picture
but never really comprehend.”
― Sanober Khan, A touch, a tear, a tempest

“Culture is a symbolic veil with which we hide our animal nature from ourselves … and other animals.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“To evade insanity and depression, we unconsciously limit the number of people toward whom we are sincerely sympathetic.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“It takes patience to listen. It takes skill to pretend you’re listening.”
― Harmon okinyo

“Dear my strong girls, you will all go through that phase of life making a mistake of helping a toxic girl whose friendship with you turns into her self-interest. This kind of girls is a real burden towards the empowerment of other females as they can never get past their own insecurity and grow out of high-school-like drama. Despite how advanced we are in educating modern women, this type will still go through life living in identity crisis, endlessly looking for providers of any kind at the end of the day. They can never stand up for others or things that matter because they can't stand up for themselves. They care what everyone thinks only doing things to impress men, friends, strangers, everyone in society except themselves, while at the same time can't stand seeing other women with purpose get what those women want in life. But let me tell you, this is nothing new, let them compete and compare with you as much as they wish, be it your career, love or spirit. You know who you are and you will know who your true girls are by weeding out girls that break our girlie code of honor, but do me a favor by losing this type of people for good. Remind yourself to never waste time with a person who likes to betray others' trust, never. Disloyalty is a trait that can't be cured. Bless yourself that you see a person's true colors sooner than later. With love, your mama. XOXO”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Character that is fruit-producing can be summed up in the mastery of these 5 qualities: morals, but a sense of humor; love, but respect for criticism; intelligence without pretense; humility without self-loathing; and a mind open, but with solid convictions.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“Let's live a lie for today.
You’ll spin tales
and pretend to love me.
And I'll smile; you’ll not realize it’s fake
Then I’ll pretend
your pretensions don’t cause me pain.”
― Sreesha Divakaran, Wine, Fire, Satin, Dew

“A man cannot really be called (sexually) confident if he has never bought his woman a vibrator.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, On Masturbation: A Satirical Essay

“The fact that you do not trust your spouse or lover doesn’t necessarily mean that they are cheating on you; and the fact that you do doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“As you recover, you will find yourself letting go of many of your negative beliefs. You will discover that many of the so-called truths you were raised with and forced to believe are not truths at all. With this perspective, you will come to see, for example, that the names you were called as a child are simply not true. You are not ‘stupid,’ ‘lazy,’ ‘ugly,’ or a ‘liar’. You can discover just who you really are. You can let go of your pretenses and masks and discover who the real person is underneath.”
― Beverly Engel, The Right to Innocence: Healing the Trauma of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Therapeutic 7-Step Self-Help Program for Men and Women, Including How to Choose a Therapist and Find a Support Group

“Knowledge of Self is very important, you can't be living in a world pretending to be someone you're not. No one will ever believe in you, when you don't have the courage to believe in yourself. You can not live to impress others solely not giving thought to express your true being. No one wants to interact with a pretender, a fake, a wannabe.”
― Amaka Imani Nkosazana, Sweet Destiny

“[T]hey somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs, but that each of them pretended not to know that the others were toadies and humbugs: because the admission that he or she did know it, would have made him or her out to be a toady and humbug.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“Some people are so sexually unattractive that the thought of masturbating turns them off.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, On Masturbation: A Satirical Essay

“Most if not all sexually active people do not really love having sex; they merely love experiencing an orgasm every now and then.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, On Masturbation: A Satirical Essay

“Some disabled people spend a significant amount of their energy on trying to come across as abled or as not that disabled.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“The primary goal of a righteous parent who has a daughter is to minimize the number of boys and men for whom their daughter will have willingly opened her legs come her wedding day; the closer to zero, the more righteous they will seem.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, On Masturbation: A Satirical Essay

“Not receiving a request through the expected route is no excuse for not fulfilling it.”
― Pawan Mishra, Coinman: An Untold Conspiracy

“Coco Chanel is said to have said that a girl should be two things: who and what she is. I say a girl should do two things: what and who she wants.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, On Masturbation: A Satirical Essay

“Some men do not know the father of 'their' children.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, On Masturbation: A Satirical Essay

“Whatever is above will be managed by the powers above you. Don’t live as a man, pretending to be God. Do what you can do; leave what you can’t to God!”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Daily Drive 365

“Cowardice is when you hide away from your real self, and wear another self in pretense. Be yourself; that is bravery. If yourself is not better for you to be, change yourself and live in that changed self!”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders' Watchwords

“Adopting the language of a pretense only serves to ease participation in it.”
― Bartok, Last Knights

“Pretension, dear love, does not buy truth into lies, nor alter its course.”
― Sreesha Divakaran, Wine, Fire, Satin, Dew

“You cannot force someone to believe something they do not believe; you can only manage to force them to speak or act as if they do.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Some people wish they were as happy as or happy like some people think they are.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Flag up your courage high and your fears will salute it in humility. Your fears are like walls without foundations; they are afraid to go down and hence pretend to be strong! Exercise Courage!”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Daily Drive 365

“Science is knowledge meeting humility meeting curiosity: ever-evolving, always learning. Atheism is often but knowledge meeting arrogance: a masquerade under the wing of the beauty of science. Religion is infamously a weight under the one wing; then under the other is atheism, the championed masquerade.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“Being called ‘love’ or ‘my love’ by someone doesn’t necessarily mean that you are loved or even liked by them.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Please help me explain to the people that I have not yet learned how to be a heartless murderer and a sweet prince at the same time."- Prince Ikan”
― Ray Anyasi, Broken Cloud: the first sunrise

“People pretend to be other people because they have never thought of their true selves”
― Sunday Adelaja