I believe it’s impossible to live life without ever engaging in hypocrisy.
As long as we try to live up to our moral standards and views, we’re only humans.
How many times have you caught yourself judging someone or calling them a hypocrite for doing exactly what you would do, with an explanation that your situation is somehow “different” than theirs?
It just feels good to be morally superior to other people, right?
Yes, you get what I am saying now. At some point or other, we all tend to be hypocritical.
Let’s read some wise quotes about hypocrites from great minds who spoke on this subject and see if you’ll recognize some of your own hypocritical traits in them.
I collected these quotes from various web sources to offer you different perspectives on what being a hypocrite means and to make you think to what extent is it ok to act like one.
Let’s start!
10 Best Quotes About Hypocrites
1. “What hypocrites we seem to be whenever we talk of ourselves! Our words sound so humble, while our hearts are so proud.” ― Augustus Hare
2. “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
3. “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
4. “Hypocrite: The man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.” — Abraham Lincoln
5. “It’s amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites.” — Thomas Sowell
6. “Hypocrites are those who apply to others the standards that they refuse to accept for themselves.” — Noam Chomsky
7. “Hypocrisy is the homage that vice and wrong pay to virtue and justice”. — Albert Pike
8. “Cheats and hypocrites are those who do everything with words and do nothing with actions.” — Democritus
9. “Although they despise each other, they embrace each other, and although they want to be above the others, they bow to each other.” — Marcus Aurelius
10. “Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Being A Hypocrite Quotes
1. “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
2. “I think I wear my hypocrisy on my sleeve. I would never say I’m not a complete hypocrite.” — Bo Burnham
3. “We are all hypocrites. We cannot see ourselves or judge ourselves the way we see and judge others.” — Jose Emilio Pacheco
4. “Those who make use of devotion as a means and end generally are hypocrites.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
5. “I think we need to look at ourselves first. We should practice what we’re preaching. Otherwise, we are hypocrites.” ― Mo Ibrahim
6. “I’m a hypocrite, of course, and I live with that, but I live.” — David Guterson
7. “Everybody is a hypocrite. You can’t live on this planet without being a hypocrite.” — Paul Watson
8. “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” — George Orwell
9. “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
10. “The hypocrite who always plays one and the same part ceases at last to be a hypocrite.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
11. “Keep thy smooth words and juggling homilies for those who know thee not.” — Lord Byron
12. “In some sense, we are all hypocrites in transition.” — Erwin McManus
13. “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
14. “A hypocrite is a person who — but who isn’t?” — Don Marquis
15. “The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.” — William Hazlitt
16. “The hypocrite, certainly, is a secret atheist; for if he did believe there was a God, he durst not be so bold as to deceive Him to His face.” — Thomas Adams
17. “The hypocrite looks for faults; the believer looks for excuses.” — Al-Ghazali
18. “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.” ― Milan Kundera
19. “Hypocrisy demonstrates how unaccountable one is to conventional morality.” — Michael Shellenberger
20. “The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.” — Andre Gide
Life Quotes About Hypocrisy
1. “Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it.” — Charles Caleb Colton
2. “No power can be maintained when it is only represented by hypocrites.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
3. “Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.” — Charles Spurgeon
4. “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
5. “The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!” — Tennessee Williams
6. “We are not hypocrites in our sleep.” ― William Hazlitt
7. “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
8. “Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.” ― Warren Wiersbe
9. “A humanitarian is always a hypocrite.” — George Orwell
10. “We’re all living contradictions, trying to survive in a world filled with hypocrites.” — Eric Jerome Dickey
11. “Our society is full of hypocrites and irrational people.” ― Vikrant Massey
12. “Hypocrite women, how seldom we speak of our own doubts, while dubiously we mother man in his doubt!” — Denise Levertov
13. “Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue.” — Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld
14. “The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.” — Max Stirner
15. “In the name of hypocrites, doctors have invented the most exquisite form of torture ever known to man: survival.” — Edward Everett Hale
16. “All of us have to be 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
17. “Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.” — Scott Meyer
18. “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
19. “Life is a hypocrite if I can’t live the way it moves me.” — Christopher Fry
20. “The good thing about being a hypocrite is that you get to keep your values.” — Alan Alda
Spotting Hypocrites Quotes
1. “Those who make use of devotion as a means and end generally are hypocrites.” — Johamm Wolfgang Von Goethe
2. “Armed neutrality makes it much easier to detect hypocrisy.” — Criss Jami
3. “The splinter in your eye is the best magnifying glass available.” — Theodor W Adorno
4. “Politeness, n. The most acceptable hypocrisy.” — Ambrose Bierce
5. “The difference between a saint and a hypocrite is that one lies for his religion, the other by it.” — Minna Antrim
6. “Compassion is a lifetime business. You can’t say something like, ‘I will have compassion on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays only. But for the rest, I will be cruel.’ That is hypocrisy.” — Isrealmore Ayivor
7. “Hypocrites get offended by the truth.” — Jess C Scott
8. “It is farmers who are nice to the cows and the pigs and then kill them. It’s even more hypocritical than hunters. At least the hunters don’t flatter the animals.” — Karl Lagerfeld
9. “We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.” — Thomas Fuller
10. “The fellow that calls you “brother” usually wants something that doesn’t belong to him.” — Kin Hubbard
11. “It is not possible to read a person at first sight. The virtues are usually covered by the veil of modesty, while the flaws wear the mask of hypocrisy.” — Jean de La Bruyère
12. “It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” — Noel Coward
13. “I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.” — Abraham Lincoln
14. “There are people who laugh to show their fine teeth, and there are those who cry to show their good hearts.” — Joseph Roux
15. “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
See also: 70 Wrongly Judged Quotes To Make You Stop Being Critical
16. “Ordinary hypocrites pretend to be doves; political and literary hypocrites pretend to be eagles. But don’t be disconcerted by their aquiline appearance. They are not eagles, but rats or dogs.” — Anton Chekhov
17. “Hypocrisy has its own elegant symmetry.” — Julie Metz
18. “In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.” — Charles de Gaulle
19. “Many, while performing the foulest deeds, use the fairest words.” — Democritus
20. “The lamb misused breeds public strife and yet forgives the butcher’s knife.” — William Blake
Don’t Be A Hypocrite Quotes
1. “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
2. “Never start a sentence with the words ‘no offense.’” — Gretchen Rubin
3. “There is nothing worse than words of kindness that lie.” — Juvenal
4. “We tend to attribute someone else’s actions to their character — and not to their situation or context. But attribute our actions to our situation and context — and not to our character.” — Sahil Bloom
5. “Hypocrisy annoys me, people need to look into mirrors. Let me hold a mirror in front of your face.” ― C. JoyBell C.
6. “Don’t let your will roar when your power only whispers.” — Dr. Thomas Fuller
7. “I don’t like politics, hypocrites, folks with poodles…” — Alan Jackson
8. “Clean your finger before you point at my spots.” — Benjamin Franklin
9. “Why lie? I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say the opposite of what I think like some others do.” — Cristiano Ronaldo
10. “Half of the misery in the world comes from trying to look, instead of trying to be, what one is not.” — George MacDonald
11. “Don’t judge someone just because they sin differently than you.” — Unknown
12. “It’s better to be an outspoken atheist than a hypocrite.” — George Harrison
13. “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
14. “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
15. “I have been known for some time as a person who speaks the truth and speaks it strongly. I have always called a liar a liar and a hypocrite a hypocrite.” ― Cindy Sheehan
16. “Your hypocrisy insults my intelligence.” — Toba Beta
17. “Don’t follow my shadow if you’re going to be shady with me.” — Unknown
See also: 80 Clever Shady People Quotes To Help You Cut Them Off
18. “God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another.” — William Shakespeare
19. “Practice what you preach or change your speech.” — Unknown
20. “We are all sinners. But may the Lord not let us be hypocrites. Hypocrites don’t know the meaning of forgiveness, joy, and the love of God.” — Pope Francis
Funny Hypocrisy Quotes
1. “My dog is vegan but he is kind of a hypocrite about it. He has a fur coat that he always wears.” — Unknown
2. “If you’re gonna be two-faced at least make one of them pretty.” — Marilyn Monroe
3. “There was more good acting at Hollywood parties than ever appeared on the screen.” — Bette Davis
4. “I really enjoy all of your religious posts on Facebook. Ever consider modifying your behavior to match them?” — Unknown
5. “You can stop hiding behind religion. Your inner hypocrite is coming in loud and clear.” — Unknown
6. “Don’t get mad if I pull a you on you.” — Unknown
7. “There is nothing funnier than a hypocrite with a big mouth and a bad memory.” — Unknown
8. “What did the hypocrite say? Don’t be a hypocrite.” — Unknown
9. “If Satan ever laughs, it must be at hypocrites; they are the greatest dupes he has; they serve him better than any others, and receive no wages.” — Unknown
10. “If you haven’t seen your wife smile at a traffic cop, you haven’t seen her smile her prettiest.” — Kin Hubbard
To Conclude
Now that you’ve read my collection of quotes about hypocrites, would you agree that being one is unavoidable?
Ok, to get it straight: hypocrisy is bad. But, as long as you keep it to small things, I think it’s not so terrible.
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