Other related topics at:
Virtue and Vice
The Whole Truth
347. Deceit
"Cunning has effect from the credulity of others, rather than
from the abilities of those who are cunning. It requires no
extraordinary talents to lie and deceive."
Boswell: Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
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495. Deceit
"All imposture weakens confidence and chills benevolence."
Johnson: Rasselas [Rasselas]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
895. Deceit; History; Innocence
"Historians are certainly chargeable with the depravation of
mankind, when they relate, 
without censure, those stratagems of
war by which the virtues of an enemy are engaged to his
destruction. A ship comes before a port, weather-beaten and
shattered, and the crew implore the liberty of repairing their
breaches, supplying themselves with necessaries, or burying their
dead. The humanity of the inhabitants inclines them to consent,
the strangers enter the town with weapons concealed, fall
suddenly upon their benefactors, destroy those that make
resistance, and become masters of the place; they return home
rich with plunder, and their success is recorded to encourage
imitation."
Johnson: Rambler #79 (December 18, 1750)
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897. Community; Deceit; Society
"Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only of the particular
injury to him who he deceives, but of the diminution of that
confidence which constitutes not only the ease but the existence
of society."
Johnson: Rambler #79 (December 18, 1750)
Link
953. Deceit; Truth
"Falsehoods of convenience or vanity, falsehoods from which no
evil immediately visible ensues, except the general degradation
of human testimony, are very lightly uttered, and once uttered
are sullenly supported."
Johnson: Congreve (Lives of the Poets)
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1,305. Appropriateness; Deceit;
Vanity
On why there is not always a natural fit between the available
work and the available labor supply: "...the benefit of this
adaptation of men to things is not always perceived. The folly
or indigence of those who set their services to sale inclines
them to boast of qualifications which they do not possess, and
attempt business which they do not understand; and they who have
the power of assigning to others the task of life are seldom
honest or seldom happy in their nominations."
Johnson: Rambler #160 (September 28, 1751)
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1,803. Deceit
"Though I love to spend, I hate be cheated, and I found that to
build is to be robbed."
Johnson: Idler #62 (June 23, 1759): from a fictional
correspondent, Tim Ranger
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