Cunning is a mental capacity that we can use to resolve conflicts or escape unnecessary problems. It is also used to achieve things or achieve goals in a creative way.
However, it has a dark side, and that is that many people can use cunning for their own ambition, going over others.
Below you will find a selection of the best phrases about cunning commented.
This is a collection of quotes and reflections on cunning that will help you use it and understand how it is reflected in relationships, communication, decision making, etc.
1. In every negotiation, the honest man is destined to bear the brunt, while mischief and bad faith ultimately score the points. (Mika Waltari)
The cunning of others comes between the honesty of some and their goals.
2. Cunning is the dark sanctuary of inability. (Philip Stanhope of Chesterfield)
Whoever exercises cunning for good and bad, actually hides his lack of skills to achieve his goals while respecting others.
3. The cunning of a fox is better than the nose of a good hunter.
There are times when being clever is the best solution.
4. Have the courage of cunning that stops anger and waits for the right moment to unleash it. (Genghis Khan)
Use cunning at the right time.
5. Cunning may have dresses, but the truth likes to go naked. (Thomas Fuller)
Cunning always comes in the most frivolous way.
6. And do not be amazed at my cunning but at your ignorance that makes it stand out. (Reynaldo Arenas)
Cunning is wiser than ignorance.
7. Man’s unhappiness, as I interpret it, comes from his greatness; It is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot completely bury in the Finite. (Thomas Carlyle)
Man always seeks to be clever when it comes to infidelities.
8. They also tend to play nice with you. But that was always the cunning of the cowards. Yes, the cowards are clever! (Friedrich Nietzsche)
10. Even sacrificing or giving up is a problem of cunning. (Cesare Pavese)
To solve a situation you have to be smarter than the problem.
11. Cunning is neither one of the best nor worst qualities. Floats between virtue and vice. (La Bruyere)
Being cunning can be classified as a virtue or a defect.
12. A wise man is not that human being who evades the grim reaper with cunning, ingenuity and innovation, but neither does he look for it with desperation, he waits for it patiently while having more ideas in development and production in mind. (Hermes Antonio Varillas Labrador)
An intelligent person waits for his moment and then acts.
13. The people learned that they were alone and that they had to fight for themselves and that from within themselves they would draw the means, silence, cunning and strength. (Rodolfo Walsh)
When fighting for ideals, you always have to be sagacious.
14. The woman’s cunning is such that, in the long run, not even Machiavelli himself could escape her networks. (William Thackeray)
The woman is cunning by nature.
15. There is a limit moment when patience stops being a virtue. (Edmund Burke)
Patience is a virtue that very few possess.
16. Cunning is the art of hiding our own defects and discovering the weaknesses of others. (William Hazlitt)
When you learn to recognize the weaknesses of others and your own, then you can consider yourself an astute person.
17. Never stay on the barren heights of cunning, but rather go down to the green valleys of foolishness. (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
18. Lying has a great part of cunning. (Anonymous)
Whoever tells a lie, looks for a way to make it credible.
19. God took away the devil’s power, but not his knowledge.
Being powerful is not the same as being intelligent.
20. Science that deviates from justice rather than science should be called cunning. (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
He who is outside the law should not be called cunning.
21. Nature hides its secret because it is sublime, not because of cunning. (Albert Einstein)
Not revealing our secrets is an act of intelligence.
22. No woman marries for interest: they all have the cunning, before marrying a millionaire, to fall in love with him. (Cesare Pavese)
Love is not a matter of cunning, but of feelings.
23. The clever always win in the first moment and are usually defeated before the end. (Phaedrus)
A clever person wins the first time, but that doesn’t last forever.
24. Cunning is seeing a hundred meters ahead, wisdom fifty miles ahead. (Charles William Day)
Cunning with intelligence is a wise decision.
25. Cunning grows in deception when it is discovered and tries to deceive with the truth itself.
Someone who is discovered quickly disappears from sight.
26. There are two peaceful powers: right and cunning. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Doing things legally and cleverly is the correct way to achieve the proposed objectives.
27. Cunning, which is part of ingenuity, is often used to make up for its shortage. (Giacomo Leopardi)
When insight is lacking, cunning makes its appearance.
28. The great cunning of some is often nothing more than the stupidity of others. (Hugues-Bernard Maret)
The smart ones exist because there are some stupid ones.
29. The lion would be clever if he took advice from the fox. (William Blake)
Learn from those who know.
30. He who is weak in courage is strong in cunning. (William Blake)
Cunning makes the fragile man regain his courage.
31. Every man desires to be wise, and those who cannot be wise are almost always cunning. (Samuel Johnson)
A wise person is very difficult to find, while a clever one is found everywhere.
32. Cunning is a short blanket, if you put it over your face, you expose your feet. (Austin O’Malley)
Sagacity is not eternal.
33. Man’s life is like a game of dice: if you cannot get the one that best suits you, you must cleverly try to take advantage of the one that you might get. (Terentius)
35. In contact with things, the heart of man becomes entangled and struggles: prudence, cunning, calm. (Zhuangzi)
In the fight you have to have sanity, mischief and tranquility.
36. Honesty may be the best policy, but leaving on time was smarter of me. (Robert Crais)
There are situations when a timely withdrawal is better than remaining idle.
37. A scoundrel favored by fortune ceases to be a scoundrel. He is already a banker, a politician, an administrator, a merchant, in short, a man who has triumphed. (Etienne Rey)
A malicious person manages to reach very high.
38. There is nothing more cunning than tangled deception. If you want to seek the truth, first uncover the lies surrounding the illusion. (Virginia Alison)
The lie is always discovered.
39. Learn well to think well and then be your own shepherd; Otherwise, you will be the unfortunate sheep of all kinds of cunning shepherds! (Mehmet Murat ildan)
Find your own path.
40. An individual’s intelligence is measured by the amount of uncertainties he or she is able to withstand. (Immanuel Kant)
A wise person knows how to handle each situation in the best way.
41. There is someone so intelligent that they learn from the experience of others. (Voltaire)
It’s good to learn from other people’s experiences.
42. God dies for the materialized man, who thinks he cannot be a man or a superman, any more than if God is not God. (Jacques Maritain)
Man wants to be superior at all times.
43. He has the ferocity of the lion, the cowardice of the hare, the cunning of the fox… (Lu Xun)
You have to be fierce, but having a little fear and being sagacious.
45. You will see that this gift of observation called knowledge of the world serves more often to make men clever than to make them good. (Samuel Johnson)
Today’s world is so convulsed that all people only seek practical cunning.
46. ​​Self-love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world. (François de la Rochefoucauld)
You should never lose self-love.
47. Only intelligence examines itself. (Jaime Balmes)
An intelligent person is superior to himself.
48. The Prince must make use of man and beast: cunning as a fox to evade traps and strong as a lion to scare away the wolves. (Nicolas Machiavelli)
You have to be sagacious and brave to face problems.
You may be interested: “The 60 best phrases of Machiavelli”
49. Virtue is a horizontal line; the force is the vertical line; and cunning is an oblique line. (Jean Louis Auguste Commerson)
51. The cunning steals a horse, the wise leaves it alone. (Benjamin Franklin)
A clever person does wrong, while an intelligent person knows how to act.
52. We are just an advanced race of apes on a minor planet of a medium star. But we can understand the universe. That makes us very special.
Despite imperfections, man is a very intelligent being.
53. The primary obligation of intelligence is to distrust it. (Stanislaw Jerzy Lec)
Don’t think you’re superior for having great knowledge.
54. No matter how small she is, a woman always outwits the devil. (Italian proverb)
The woman is very intelligent and sagacious.
55. Have courage or cunning when facing an enemy. (Publilius Syrus)
In front of your adversary, remain strong, insightful and fearless.
56. Illness makes a man a scoundrel. (Samuel Johnson)
In difficult times, man becomes more skillful.
57. To be able to live here you must have cunning. (Bertolt Brecht)
In life you have to be very clever.
58. He had the fidelity and devotion born under the protection of the fire and the roof, but he had preserved the ferocity and cunning. (Jack London)
Within a relationship, you must maintain fidelity and cunning.
You may be interested: “Theories of human intelligence”
59. Love seeks in beings, beyond the flesh, a secret of ardor, science and cunning that only those who have lived a long time have. (François Mauriac)
Love not only focuses on physical contact, but on the moments lived and the secrets shared.
60. Strategy is about making decisions, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different. (Michael Porter)
Many of the decisions we make require strategies to prosper.
61. One man may be more cunning than another, but not more cunning than all the rest. (Benjamin Franklin)
Cunning reaches a very short space.
62. You can be smarter than others, but it is dangerous to appear so. (Etienne Cueilhe)
Don’t show how clever you are.
63. Cunning is often annoying like a lamp in a bedroom. (Ludwig Börne)
It is annoying to always be in the presence of someone clever.
64. I will watch with the cunning of the serpent, and with its poison I will bite you. Mortal! You will regret the damage you have done to me. (Mary Shelley)
Beware of a woman’s cunning.
65. No person of humble status has ever gained great power only through force, but only through cunning. (Nicolas Machiavelli)
You always win more with cunning than with power.
66. What would it matter to a God who did not know anger, revenge, mockery, cunning, violence? (Friedrich Nietzsche)
God can be clever too.
67. One must be cunning and evil in this world. (Leo Tolstoy)
Many people see cunning and evil as the best way to behave.
68. Cunning leads to mischief. It’s just a step from one to the other, and that’s very slippery. Just lying makes a difference; Add that to cunning, and it’s mischief. (Ovid)
Mischief is also a lifestyle.
69. Because perhaps we also need cunning for love. (Sándor Márai)
Love also works with a touch of cunning.
70. Man, driven by the hunger of plunder, with innate malice and natural cunning, formed intelligence and monopolized the earth. And still the truth proclaims! Supreme ruse of war! (Antonio Machado)
It refers to how this great author sees man.
71. Cunning is a kind of myopia, which discovers the smallest objects that are nearby, but is not able to discern things at a distance. (Joseph Addison)
A cunning person is only able to see at a short distance.
72. The truths that intelligence reveals remain sterile. Only the heart is capable of fecundating dreams. (Anatole France)
Love with all your heart every dream you want to make come true.
73. The more cunning a man is, the less he suspects that he will be caught in something simple. (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
A cunning man is also dangerous.
74. Foolishness is the strangest of diseases. The patient never suffers, those who really suffer are the others. (Paul-Henrl Spaak)
Stupidity does not affect the person who suffers from it, but those around them.
75. For my part, I believe that that uneducated spirit was one of those who allow themselves to be trapped by their own lies, and that fanaticism ran in parallel with cunning. (Marguerite Yourcenar)
The ignorant are trapped in their own world.
76. You can be smarter than someone else, but not smarter than everyone else. (François de La Rochefoucauld)
We may be better than another person, but there will always be someone who is better than us.
77. What would a writer be without that obstacle that forces him to subtle twists and turns to say what cannot be said? The literary technique wins. (Azorin)
The ignorant are trapped in their own world.
78. When stating the obvious, never choose cleverness. Shouting works better. (Cynthia Ozick)
It is better to say something directly than to find a ruse to do it.
Related article: “Motivated reasoning: what is it and how is it associated with emotions?”
79. Art is the final cunning of the human soul that would do anything rather than face the gods. (Iris Murdoch)
Cunning is an art.
80. Patience and time do more than force and violence. (Jean de la Fontaine)
Give it time and incorporate a dose of patience.
81. Nothing is more like an honest man than a rogue who knows his trade. (Xavier Guell)
The skilled man knows very well what he is doing.
82. The purpose of war is homicide; its instruments, espionage, betrayal, the ruin of the inhabitants, looting and theft to supply the army, deception and lies, called military cunning. (Leo Tolstoy)
Cunning is one of the great weapons used during a war.
83. I am devious, cruel, cunning and addictive. (Anthony Hopkins)
Phrase that refers to the way this actor sees himself.
84. Nothing does more harm to a state than the fact that clever men pass for wise. (Francis Bacon)
The cunning of many impoverishes a country.
85. This is the great fault of wine; he first stumbles over his feet: he is a cunning fighter. (Plautus)
Despite the difficulties, you have to be very clever.
86. Look like the innocent flower, but be the snake beneath it. (William Shakespeare)
The only thing many people have is their intelligence.
88. Do not be foolish or cunning, but be wise. (Benjamin Franklin)
Bet on knowledge.
89. Most people are like pins: their heads are not the most important thing. (Jonathan Swift)
There are people who only focus on cultivating their ego.
90. Envy, like the worm, never runs except towards the most beautiful fruit; Like a cunning hound, he chooses the fattest deer in the herd. (Francis Beaumont)
Envy always goes towards the best prize.
91. There is an old saying, the devil knows more because he is old than because he is a devil. And my father is both things.
Older people have extensive knowledge.
92. The art of using deception and cunning continually becomes weaker and less effective for the user. (John Tillotson)
A person who always deceives loses strength over time.
You may be interested: “The 15 types of lies and their characteristics”
93. Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)
Patience is a very difficult art to master.
94. Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables. (Sappho)
Love brings with it illusion and dreams.
95. Where there is nothing but crafty cunning, there is necessarily meanness. To say clever is to say mediocre. (Victor Hugo)
Cunning brings selfishness.
Cunning is neither a good nor bad quality, but rather it is an attitude that a person has towards a situation and how it affects those around them.
