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Although hypocrisy may be one of the most commonly seen traits in humans, it can often cause some of the most heated debates.
Quotes about hypocrisy and hypocrites can give you a unique perspective on these difficult people, and help you deal with them efficiently.
Hypocrisy quotes from esteemed minds such as Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde provide clever and acerbic insights into the psyche of the hypocrite; while religious text quotes always offer an unbiased moral compass to guide your actions towards these people.
Perhaps hypocrisy is something we all will stumble upon from time to time, but with a bit of wit, guidance, and reflection hypocrisy can be managed with success.
What is a Hypocrite?
A hypocrite is someone who asks others to do what they are not willing or unable to do. As the hypocrisy quotes on this page will prove, hypocrisy has been recognized as a problem since ancient times, yet it remains an unfortunately common feature of human behavior.
Hypocrites absolve themselves of personal responsibility, believing that their words carry more weight than their actions. However, the truth of hypocrisy lies in its transparent nature – hypocrisy often reveals more about a person’s character than if they had said nothing at all.
10 Common Signs of a Hypocrite
- Hypocrites are always quick to judge others.
- They are always preaching about what others should do, but don’t practice what they preach.
- Always talk about how virtuous they are, but their actions don’t match their words.
- Like to put others down to make themselves feel better.
- Always making excuses for their bad behavior.
- Trying to control others instead of focusing on their own lives.
- Putting themselves first and expecting others to do the same.
- They never take responsibility for their actions and always blame others for their problems
- Hypocrites are perpetual victims
- For no apparent reason, hypocrites often act condescending and patronizing
Without further ado, let’s get to the quotes about hypocrites…
Hypocrite Quotes
Hypocrisy quotes have the potential to reveal hypocrisy in many forms. They can be an effective tool for holding people and situations accountable, providing a healthy reminder of our values, and creating more meaningful change when speaking out.
These quotes are often used to drive home a point about hypocrisy and hypocrisy’s impact on society.
By inspiring people to think twice about their words and actions, hypocrisy quotes can influence those around us to make changes themselves or encourage them to speak out against hypocrisy.
Now more than ever, with hypocrisy rampant in our society, hypocrisy quotes can help create a culture of transparency, trust, and integrity that is essential for progress. Let’s get to it…
- “Hypocrites get offended by truth while honest people get offended by lies” -Unknown
- “If hypocrisy were an art, most people would be master craftsmen.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana
- “One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.” – Mother Teresa
- “Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- “Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.” – Charles Spurgeon
- “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
- “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” – James D. Miles
- “No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.”-Bertrand Russell
- “It takes two faces to make a mask.” ― Robert Brault
- “A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives but has no respect for himself. He would make others believe that which he knows to be false, and yet he does not even believe it himself.”― John Tillotson
- “The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” ― Oscar Wilde
- “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit.” – Lawrence Durrell
- “The only way you can sometimes control people is to lie to them. It’s the only power they respect.” – George Bernard Shaw
- “He who does not feel his own wound will never understand another’s suffering”― Terry Pratchett
- “The only vice which cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.” -William Hazlitt
- “A hypocrite thinks everyone else is a hypocrite!” – Anonymous
- “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain” ― Dolly Parton
- “The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture, and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink” – George Orwell (1984)
- “Force may make hypocrites, but it can never make converts.” – William Penn
Hypocrite Friends Quotes
As the old saying goes, “with friends like these, who needs enemies?” We’ve all had our fair share of dealing with hypocritical friends from time to time; you know the type – they dish out advice but never seem to follow it themselves.
Thankfully, there is plenty of hypocritical quotes we can pull out in those situations that remind us we aren’t alone and that there is a lighthearted way to look at these regrettable friendships.
- “Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “People appear like angels until you hear them speak. You must not rush to judge people by the color of their cloaks, but by the content of their words!” – Israelmore Ayivor
- “People who shout joy from the rooftops are often the saddest of all.” – Milan Kundera
- “It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” – Noël Coward
- “Hypocrites are those who apply to others the standards that they refuse to accept for themselves.” -Noam Chomsky
Quotes About Hypocrites
Hypocrisy is a trait we abhor, yet tolerate – or at least it can seem that way. Whether it’s our friends, family, or coworkers, we’ve all come across a hypocrite in our lives.
Sooner or later, life seems to make hypocrites of us all. At least to some extent. These quotes about hypocrites give us a deeper look at the hypocrites we love to hate.
- “What sort of lives do these people, who pose as being moral, lead themselves? My dear fellow, you forget that we are in the native land of the hypocrite.” – Oscar Wilde
- “We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.” – Thomas Fuller
- “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
- “Keep thy smooth words and juggling homilies for those who know thee not.” – Lord Byron
- “What hypocrites we seem to be whenever we talk of ourselves! Our words sound so humble, while our hearts are so proud.” -Augustus Hare
- “I thought of the sleeping pills in my bag and wondered just how great a hypocrite I was. It was so easy to advise other people to live with their pain.” -Octavia E. Butler
- “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
- “Live truth instead of professing it.” – Elbert Hubbard
- “For the highest reach of injustice is, to be deemed just when you are not.” -Plato
- “Everybody expects hypocrisy from politicians. And so, you tell a politician they are being a hypocrite, and they say, oh, you have such a nasty tune, stop saying those rude things, because they don‘t care about the substance of it.” – Rachel Maddow
Bible Quotes About Being a Hypocrite
Hypocrites are all around us, which is why we should remember these old bible verses reminding us to check our behaviors and attitudes first before judging others.
If we’re not careful, all that finger-pointing will just turn into a judgmental three-ring circus instead!
- “He replied, ‘Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” -Mark 7:6
- “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” – Matthew 23:27
- “If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.” – Galatians 6:3
- “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” – 1 John 4:20
- “Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.” –1 Peter 2:16
- “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.” – Titus 1:16
- “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” – Mathew 15:7
- “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” -Luke 6:46
- “In the same way, on the outside, you appear to people as righteous but on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” –Matthew 23:28
Funny Quotes About Hypocrites
People who preach one thing and do another often evoke a deep response from writers. Throughout the centuries, many have unleashed a barrage of funny quotes about hypocrites that poke fun at the sheer irony.
With a cutting-edge and razor-sharp wit, these famous pundits below remind us to take ourselves less seriously and become more aware of our shortcomings and mistakes.
- “If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?” –Abraham Lincoln
- “Clean your finger before you point at my spots.” – Benjamin Franklin
- “If a girl says, ‘I hate drama,’ there is a 99% chance she is a huge drama queen.” – Unknown
- “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
- “Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it’s someone else’s witch being hunted.” – Walter Kirn
- “Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.” – François de La Rochefoucauld
- “A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, but has no respect for himself.” – William Hazlitt
- “The higher the monkey climbs, the more you see of his behind.” – Joseph Furphy
- “Hypocrisy is a tribute vice pays to virtue.” – Luc de Clapiers
- “If you’re going to be a hypocrite, at least have the good sense to be consistent.” – Luke Snow
- “The devil may wear many faces, but a hypocrite wears them all.” – Unknown
- “A hypocrite is the kind of person who would cut down a tree, then mount it on their wall as a decoration.” – Unknown
- “Hypocrisy is the art of professing beliefs, principles, or feelings that one does not hold.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- “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 E. Stevenson
- “Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.” – Mark Twain
- “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.” – Oscar Wilde
- “Often those that criticize others reveal what he lacks.” -Shannon Adler
- “God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.“ – William Shakespeare
- “It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.” -George Bernard Shaw
A Final Word On Hypocrisy Quotes
The concept of hypocrisy may have been around since the dawn of time, however, its reach—and, unfortunately, prevalence—has only grown over time.
The truth is, it’s way easier to identify a hypocrite than it is to avoid being one in the first place. After all, a hypocrite can be anyone in our lives – whether they masquerade as a friend, family member, colleague, or boss – and their words and actions can be incredibly hard to ignore!
It’s our job to recognize when those around us might be hypocritical so we can learn how to better understand ourselves and not fall into the same traps.
So take note of the signs above, get yourself an arsenal of quotes about hypocrites at the ready, and watch out for others who are being two-faced to come out on top on any given day.
I hope you enjoyed these hypocrisy quotes. Now go out and be hypocritical no more!
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