Contrive Quotes

If you wish your audience to cry, you must shed tears yourself, but if you wish to make them laugh you must contrive to look as serious as a judge.

Giacomo Casanova

In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons [...] who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.

Edward Bernays

He said that few people had intellectual resources sufficient to forgo the pleasures of wine. They could not otherwise contrive how to fill the interval between dinner and supper.

Samuel Johnson

If you must commit suicide... always contrive to do it as decorously as possible; the decencies, whether of life or of death, should never be lost sight of.

George Borrow

If you must commit suicide and there is no knowing to what people may be brought always contrive to do it as decorously as possible; the decencies, whether of life or of death, should never be lost sight of.

George Henry Borrow

To contrive a little kingdom, in the midst of the universal muck, then shit on it, ah that was me all over.

Samuel Beckett