quotations about suspicion
Suspicion is never the moral equivalent of certainty, and punishment may be inflicted only on the ground of certainty.
LUIS ANTONIO TAGLE
pastoral letter, June 20, 2017
One moment her mind was as blank as the desert; the next minute the snake of suspicion had slithered into her thoughts and raised its poisonous head.
THRITY UMRIGAR
The Space Between Us
But if you're withholding your trust for a reason, justified or not, a shifting of boundaries or treating a partner with suspicion is always going to result in tension. Deciding to withhold trust is one of the deepest betrayals you can inflict on a partner. It puts up a wall, and reflects their worst traits back at them. No relationship, however loving, can survive that for very long.
BETHANY ALLENDALE & STU MCLAUREN
"The Worst Relationship Betrayal May Not be an Affair", The Good Men Project, January 3, 2016
Suspiciousness is as great an enemy to wisdom as too much credulity.
THOMAS FULLER
The History of the Holy War
I get these suspicions
Even though I know that you love me, baby
And I really shouldn't feel this way
(Ooo, suspicions)
I can't help it, you're just so good lookin'
I'm afraid somebody's gonna steal you away from me
TIM MCGRAW
"Suspicions"
In love, to doubt is to accuse.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Edmund Kean: Or the Genius and the Libertine
Surmise is the gossamer that malice blows on fair reputations, the corroding dew that destroys the choice blossom; surmise is primarily the squint of suspicion, and suspicion is established before it is confirmed.
EBERHARD AUGUST WILHELM ZIMMERMAN
attributed, Day's Collacon
Few men are above suspicion; a great many are below it.
GEORGE DENISON PRENTICE
Prenticeana: Or, Wit and Humor in Paragraphs
It is hardly possible to suspect another, without having in one's self the seeds of the baseness the party is accused of.
KING STANISLAUS OF POLAND
attributed, Day's Collacon
When rumor comes to call
Suspicion's taking over
And I'm back against the wall
You just smile assuringly
And my defenses fall
CAROLE KING
"You Gentle Me"
SUSPICIONS amongst thoughts, are like bats amongst birds, they ever fly by twilight. Certainly they are to be repressed, or at least well guarded: for they cloud the mind; they lose friends; and they check with business, whereby business cannot go on currently and constantly. They dispose kings to tyranny, husbands to jealousy, wise men to irresolution and melancholy. They are defects, not in the heart, but in the brain; for they take place in the stoutest natures; as in the example of Henry the Seventh of England. There was not a more suspicious man, nor a more stout. And in such a composition they do small hurt. For commonly they are not admitted, but with examination, whether they be likely or no. But in fearful natures they gain ground too fast. There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to know little; and therefore men should remedy suspicion, by procuring to know more, and not to keep their suspicions in smother. What would men have? Do they think, those they employ and deal with, are saints? Do they not think, they will have their own ends, and be truer to themselves, than to them? Therefore there is no better way, to moderate suspicions, than to account upon such suspicions as true, and yet to bridle them as false. For so far a man ought to make use of suspicions, as to provide, as if that should be true, that he suspects, yet it may do him no hurt. Suspicions that the mind of itself gathers, are but buzzes; but suspicions that are artificially nourished, and put into men's heads, by the tales and whisperings of others, have stings. Certainly, the best mean, to clear the way in this same wood of suspicions, is frankly to communicate them with the party, that he suspects; for thereby he shall be sure to know more of the truth of them, than he did before; and withal shall make that party more circumspect, not to give further cause of suspicion. But this would not be done to men of base natures; for they, if they find themselves once suspected, will never be true. The Italian says, Sospetto licentia fede; as if suspicion, did give a passport to faith; but it ought, rather, to kindle it to discharge itself.
FRANCIS BACON
"Of Suspicion", Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral
Like those imperceptible insects which, having once penetrated the root of a tree devour it in a single night, suspicion, when it invades our minds, soon develops itself and destroys our firmest beliefs.
ÉMILE GABORIAU
File No. 113
All kinds of evil flourish in suspicion. It is a perpetual breeder of the qualities that instantly work for evil, including secrecy and resentment.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"Being Suspicious", Reactions and Other Essays
Suspicion, seemingly ferreting out and exposing the weaknesses and the evil deeds of others, is really in itself an exposure. It exposes the mind and the character working so insidiously and diabolically, ugly in themselves and conserving ugliness and trying to match it with reality. And yet most suspicions are unreal, even those that seem to find verification. In nearly every instance there is a difference between suspicion and confirmation, usually a wide difference. And often where there is apparent confirmation it is not confirmation at all. There are people who are so certain their suspicions are sound that there is no convincing them of the truth. They prefer to keep themselves.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"Being Suspicious", Reactions and Other Essays
Suspicion cleaves to the dark side of things.
PUBLILIUS SYRUS
The Moral Sayings of Publilius Syrus
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Henry VI, Part III
Suspicion is an owl that flies when the light is bad and catches only vermin for food.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Suspicion engendereth curiosity, backbiting, unquietness, factions, jealousy, and many other mischiefs.
JOSUE MAALER
attributed, Day's Collacon
Suspicion kisses you when I do
Though I've never let you know
I only wish you knew what I knew
So we could both enjoy the show
RICHARD MARX
"Suspicion"
Statistically speaking, there is a 65 percent chance that the love of your life is having an affair. Be very suspicious.
SCOTT DIKKERS
You Are Worthless: Depressing Nuggets of Wisdom Sure to Ruin Your Day