Hypocrites are often regarded as some of the worst people in society. These hypocrite quotes work to display what exactly it is that turns people to hypocrisy, and what it means for us as human beings. Nearly everyone has hypocritical tendencies: it’s part of human nature. So why is it, then, that we feel so disheartened by hypocrites when we encounter one?
The thing is, of course, we humans are comforted by the truth, and we’re also comforted by being right, or appearing to be right in a discussion. This means that we’re constantly doing things to prove ourselves to be correct, even when we’re not, yet if we’re at the receiving end, it can break our hearts. Sounds, well, hypocritical, right? That’s because it is, and that’s okay!
These quotes will expose these hypocritical tendencies, and even break down the chronic hypocrite’s actions into what they truly are: human.
After reading the quotes below, remember to also check out our collection of liar quotes as well as these honesty quotes on life, love and success.
Hypocrite Quotes for Understanding Hypocrites Themselves
1.) “A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.” – Adlai Stevenson
2.) “Often those that criticize others reveal what he himself lacks.” – Shannon L Alder
3.) “I think I wear my hypocrisy on my sleeve. I would never say I’m not a complete hypocrite.” – Bo Burnham
4.) “The man who is most aggressive in teaching tolerance is the most intolerant of all: he wants a world full of people too timid and ashamed to really disagree with anything.” – Criss Jami
5.) “It’s better to be an outspoken atheist than a hypocrite.” – George Harrison
6.) “He does not believe that does not live according to his belief.” – Sigmund Freud
7.) “Some people’s blameless lives are to blame for a good deal.” – Dorothy L Sayers
8.) “Having then, once introduced an element of inconsistency into his system, he was far too consistent not to be inconsistent consistently, and he lapsed ere long into an amiable indifferentism which to outward appearance differed but little from their indifferentism.” – Samuel Butler
9.) “To win the people, always cook them some savory that pleases them.” –Aristophanes
10.) “And what sort of lives do these people, who post as being moral, lead themselves? My dear fellow, you forget that we are in the native land of the hypocrite.” – Oscar Wilde
11.) “Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue.” – Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld
12.) “Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.” – Hannah Arendt
13.) “The lamb misused breeds public strife and yet forgives the butcher’s knife.” – William Blake
14.) “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” – George Orwell
15.) “Hypocrisy has its own elegant symmetry.” – Julie Metz
16.) “A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself. He would make a dupe of himself too, if he could.” – William Hazlitt
17.) “The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.” –Max Stirner
18.) “Kids have what I call a built-in hypocrisy antenna that comes up and blocks out what you’re saying when you’re being a hypocrite.” – Ben Carson
19.) “A hypocrite is a person who—but who isn’t?” – Don Marquis
20.) “Everybody loves a witch hunt as long as it’s someone else’s witch being hunted.” – Unknown
Hypocrite Quotes for People Who Have Been Lied To
21.) “The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.” – William Hazlitt
22.) “The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!” –Tennessee Williams
23.) “It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” – Noel Coward
24.) “I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.” – Oscar Wilde
25.) “I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and car are not the better for it.” – Abraham Lincoln
26.) “Your hypocrisy insults my intelligence.” – Toba Beta
27.) “Hypocrisy annoys me, people need to look into mirrors. Let me hold a mirror in front of your face.” – C JoyBell C
28.) “Armed neutrality makes it much easier to detect hypocrisy.” – Criss Jami
Hypocrite Quotes About Honesty
29.) “We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.” –Thomas Fuller
30.) “Why lie? I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say the opposite of what I think, like some others do.” – Cristiano Ronaldo
31.) “Compassion is a lifetime business. You can’t say something like, ‘I will have compassion on Monday, Thursdays, and Fridays only. But for the rest, I will be cruel.’ That is hypocrisy.” – Isrealmore Ayivor
32.) “Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.” – Charles Spurgeon
33.) “I often wonder why the whole world is so prone to generalize. Generalizations are seldom if ever true and are usually utterly inaccurate.” – Agatha Christie
34.) “The splinter in your eye is the best magnifying-glass available.” –Theodor W Adorno
35.) “Never start a sentence with the words ‘no offense.’” – Gretchen Rubin
36.) “People appear like angels until you hear them speak. You must not rush to judge people by the color of their cloaks, but the content of their words!” – Isrealmore Ayivor
37.) “How furious she must be, now that she’s been taken at her word.” –Margaret Atwood
38.) “Hypocrisy: noun. The moment you tell someone it is not important to be right, in order to look right to everyone else.” – Shannon L Alder
Hypocrite Quotes for Being Human
39.) “Everybody is a hypocrite. You can’t live on this planet without being a hypocrite.” – Paul Watson
40.) “None of us can claim to be fair and square in love—and I’m definitely not a hypocrite! Humans are built to evolve with time. It depends on the nature of the relationship you share with a person. It is there today, tomorrow it may be gone; c’est la vie.” – Randeep Hooda
41.) “The difference between a saint and a hypocrite is that one lies for his religion, the other by it.” – Minna Antrim
42.) “I was not a hypocrite, with one real face and several false ones. I had several faces because I was young and didn’t know who I was or wanted to be.” – Unknown
43.) “We are all hypocrites. We cannot see ourselves or judge ourselves the way we see and judge others.” – Jose Emilio Pacheco
44.) “Nothing that we despise in other men is inherently absent from ourselves. We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or don’t do, and more in light of what they suffer.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
45.) “I’m convinced that most men don’t know what they believe, rather, they only know what they wish to believe. How many people blame God for a man’s atrocities, but wouldn’t dream of imprisoning a mother for her son’s crime?” – Criss Jami
46.) “People that have trust issues only need to look in the mirror. There they will meet the one person that will betray them the most.” – Shannon L Alder
47.) “All of us have to prevaricators, hypocrites, and liars every day of our lives; otherwise the social structure would fall into pieces the first day. We must act in one another’s presence just as we must wear clothes. It is for the best.” – O Henry
48.) “People who shout joy from the rooftops are often the saddest of all.” –Milan Kundera
49.) “When it comes to judging individuals, I do not like remarks such as ‘too good to be true.’ They speak as though one is rewarding the nature of evil. Yet, ironically, we still wonder where all the good people have gone.” –Criss Jami
50.) “Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.” –Scott Meyer
What have you learned from these Hypocrisy quotes?
These Hypocrite quotes serve as an analysis of the human heart and our tendencies as people in society. Being lied to is hurtful, and deceit in the form of hypocrisy is simply a well constructed lie.
When hypocrites enter our lives, it’s easy to feel hurt, which can lead us to distrust many of the people around us. But the truth is, hypocrisy is simply part of human nature.
What can we learn from these tendencies, then? The most important thing is to recognize that it’s simply human to want to prove yourself right. It’s nearly impossible to be human without being a little flawed. Recognizing this can change your life around, and see hypocrites in a whole new light.
What’s your biggest takeaway from these hypocrisy quotes? Do you have any other thoughtful and inspirational quotes to add? Tell us in the comment section below.
