Cunning Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old cunning quotes, cunning sayings, and cunning proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

The more cunning a man is, the less he suspects that he will be caught in a simple thing. The more cunning a man is, the simpler the trap he must be caught in. Fyodor Dostoevsky
Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people’s weaknesses. William Hazlitt
Cunning leads to knavery. It is but a step from one to the other, and that very slippery. Only lying makes the difference; add that to cunning, and it is knavery. Ovid
Cunning is a short blanket, if you pull it over your face, you expose your feet. Austin O'Malley
The cunning man steals a horse, the wise man lets him alone. Benjamin Franklin
Cunning is seeing a hundred yards ahead—wisdom, fifty miles in advance. Charles William Day
One must be cunning and wicked in this world. Leo Tolstoy
Cunning grows in deceit at seeing itself discovered, and tries to deceive with truth itself. Balthasar Gracian
Learn well how to think right and then be your own shepherd, otherwise you shall be the unlucky sheep of all sorts of cunning shepherds! Mehmet Murat ildan
Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to live today without being one. Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what looks like cunning. Baltasar Gracian
There is nothing so cunning as tangled deception. If you wish to seek out the truth, first uncover the lies that surround the illusion. Virginia Alison
Have courage, or cunning, when you deal with an enemy. Publilius Syrus
Only the cunning needs excuses. Aristotle
The weak in courage is strong in cunning. William Blake
Cunning is strength withheld. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The greatest cunning is to have none at all. French Proverb
Self-love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world. Francois de la Rochefoucauld
Cunning is but the low mimic of wisdom. Plato
Be neither silly, nor cunning, but wise. Benjamin Franklin
Cunning differs from wisdom as twilight from open day. Samuel Johnson
Cunning is the mere ape of wisdom, and all hate its low tricks. John Thornton
The very cunning conceal their cunning; the indifferently shrewd boast of it. Christian Nestell Bovee
The greatest cunning is to have none at all. Carl Sandburg
It is important to realize that the cunning are not always vicious. The cunning often do good things, but for self-interested and utility-driven reasons. Jeffrey Cornwall
Cunning is the dwarf of wisdom. W.R Alger
A cunning man overreaches no one half as much as himself. Henry Ward Beecher
Cunning is the intensest rendering of vulgarity, absolute and utter. Ruskin
Cunning is none of the best nor worst qualities. It floats between virtue and vice. La Bruyère
Cunning has little honor. Danish Proverb
Cunning surpasses strength. German Proverb