“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
Kurt Vonnegut book Mother Night
Introduction (1966)
Sometimes misquoted as: Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.
Mother Night (1961)
Richard McKenna book The Sand Pebbles
Source: The Sand Pebbles (1962), Ch. 5; speech of Lt. Collins
Context: It is said there will be no more war. We must pretend to believe that. But when war comes, it is we who will take the first shock and buy time with our lives. It is we who keep the faith. We are not honored for it. We are called mercenaries on the outposts of empire. … We serve the flag. The trade we follow is the give and take of death. It is for that purpose the American people maintain us. Any one of us who believes he has a job like any other, for which he draws a money wage, is a thief of the food he eats and a trespasser in the bunk in which he lies down to sleep!
“We all eventually become whatever we pretend to hate.”
Chuck Klosterman (1972) Author, Columnist
Source: I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling With Villains
“We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.”
Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind
Variant: We all become what we pretend to be.
Source: The Name of the Wind
“It is better to recognise that we are in darkness than to pretend that we can see the light.”
Hedley Bull (1932–1985) Australian academic
Source: The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics
“We must exercise faith. We don’t pretend we’re fine. We don’t deny it. But we trust in Him.”
John Townsend (1952) Canadian clinical psychologist and author
Where Is God (2009, Thomas Nelson publishers)
“Sometimes, to please the ladies, we drop down our weapons pretending we are civilized.”
Aristotle Onassis (1906–1975) Greek shipping magnate
Quoted in Peter Evans, Ari: Life and Times of Aristotle Socrates Onassis, (1978),
During his wedding (Terrace Room - Plaza) with Tina Livanos about [Stavros Niarchos]
