This is why we are indignant at people who are disingenuous with us, because they consider themselves smarter than us.
Francois La Rochefoucauld
You can be more cunning than another, but you cannot be more cunning than everyone else.
Francois La Rochefoucauld
He who is famous for his cunning is not very cunning.
Felix Hvalibug
Don't set a mousetrap if you yourself are suitable as bait.
Wieslaw Brudzinski
The cunning man fights while the wise man yields.
Karel Capek
It is a shame for a person to be cunning like a fox; one should not be a saddle bag.
Aristophanes
When dealing with constantly cunning people, you must always not lose sight of their goals. With such people it is better to say little and say what they least expect.
F. Bacon
Everyone tries to be smart, and those who cannot be are almost always cunning.
S. Johnson
Undoubtedly, slyness, like intelligence, is expressed on the face. But some have learned to skillfully retouch their portraits to look smart.
V. Zubkov
Cunning is a very limited people and is very different from the mind, which it resembles in appearance.
I. Kant
Cunning is not intelligence, but only the intensified work of instincts caused by the absence of intelligence.
V. Klyuchevsky
You think that this person has fooled you; and if he pretends to be fooled, then who is more fooled: he or you?
J. Labruyère
Anyone who knows how to suggest that he is not very cunning is no longer simple.
J. Labruyère
Cunning is a quality that is neither too commendable nor too reprehensible, it is something between a vice and a virtue; There are almost no cases where it could not and should not be replaced by prudence.
J. Labruyère
The highest skill is to know the true price of everything.
F. La Rochefoucauld
Cunning and treachery indicate only deficiencies in dexterity.
F. La Rochefoucauld
Cunning is a sign of a narrow mind.
F. La Rochefoucauld
No one has ever managed to be so cunning as to hide this quality of theirs.
D. Locke
Lies have a constant companion - cunning.
D. Locke
Cunning is only the absence of reason: not being able to achieve its goals in direct ways, it tries to achieve them in tricky, roundabout ways; and her trouble is that cunning helps only once, and then it always only gets in the way.
D. Locke
Cunning people despise knowledge, simpletons are surprised at it, wise people use it.
T. Macaulay
Cunning is the talent of egoists and can only deceive fools who mistake glibness for intelligence, seriousness for prudence, shamelessness for talent, pride for dignity.
O. Mirabeau
Crafty people are usually simple, not complex in nature.
F. Nietzsche
Cunning is a gloomy temple of mediocrity.
F. Chesterfield
The trouble is that the most simple questions We try to solve things cunningly, and therefore make them extraordinarily complex.
A. Chekhov
Dexterity in comparison with cunning is the same as dexterity of hands in comparison with cheating.
N. Chamfort
If the fox just sticks its muzzle in, its body will follow.
W. Shakespeare
The dexterity of a rogue, however, does not atone for trickery, but fraud in large size always elevates the cheater. Emptying someone else's pocket is shameful, hiding a million is daring, but stealing a crown is an infinitely great thing. The greater the vice, the less shame there is.
F. Schiller
Cunning as a personality quality is the ability to hide one’s secret intention through manipulation with real information about the actual state of facts and circumstances.
The hungry lion wanted to eat the jackal, but the jackal, writhing in pain under the lion’s heavy paw, squealed to him that jackals stink, everyone knows that! And therefore, before eating a jackal, you must take it by the scruff of the neck with your teeth and rinse it in the river flowing nearby. Lev did just that. He rinsed the jackal in the river. Then he decided to ask if it was enough, and unclenched his teeth. The jackal that fell into the water was carried away by the fast river, and the lion remained hungry.
In Ozhegov’s dictionary, the definition of “cunning” is interpreted in several senses. This is crafty, resourceful, and inventive, therefore, cunning embraces all shades moral assessments- from condemning (“one who follows deceitful paths”) to approving (“skillful in something”).
Cunning is a particular property of consciousness, determined by the need to create ample opportunities for a person to adapt in outside world. It usually interacts with the mind. Animals with a brain have what is called animal cunning. Innate cunning inherent in predators - tigers, foxes, snakes. But herbivores also hear how the grass grows; they need cunning to survive. In the forest you need to be a fox.
A woman is several times superior to a man in the strength of feelings and emotions; her resourceful mind is her strongest side. In the same proportion, a man surpasses a woman in mental strength. But the mind practically does not interact with cunning; its counterpart is the mind. The mind comes into play when it is necessary to think through a clever, multi-move combination or a complex strategy of behavior. On household level he is silent, giving way to the mind. A woman relies on the sensual activity of the mind, therefore she is much more cunning than a man, this is her undoubted vital advantage, the skillful use of which allows her to wisely, not directly, contact a man, realize her desires and achieve family happiness. A frontal attack is not a method for a cunning woman; straightforwardness, inflexibility, straight-backedness are the antipodes of cunning. A woman’s trick is to give up her desire in favor of a man’s desire so that her desire comes true.
Cunning, being an attribute of the mind, has support either in the form of intellect or everyday experience. Women mainly focus on the sensual component of the mind, that is, the area where they have no equal. Men mainly rely on intelligence, feelings and emotions - this is not their strong point. Therefore, discussions about the fact that if a person is smart, then he is also cunning, need to be considered in precisely this aspect. There is no reason to believe that cunning as a derivative of the intellect is superior to cunning as a derivative of the sensory activity of the mind. In practice, we see confirmation of this every day when a woman skillfully uses the weapon of cunning to achieve her goals. Cunning is a demonstration of the sophistication of the mind in protecting its interests. If a woman is narrow-minded, stupid and insensitive, then her cunning will be appropriate. At the same time, “there are still women in Russian villages” who, having not read anything other than “Ryaba the Hen,” can give a hundred points head start on cunning to any favorite of the club of experts. If success could be achieved through cunning alone, women would be the best chess players. In general, cunning demonstrates the limitations of the individual’s mind.
Hundreds of times cunning has helped to win not only in disputes, but also in real war. M.I. Kutuzov said: “I don’t undertake to win, I’ll try to outwit.” Let us remember the well-known myth of the Trojan horse. During the war with Troy, the Danaans, after a long and unsuccessful siege, decided to make a “knight’s move,” namely, donate it. They made huge building in the form of a horse and presented it as a gift to the goddess Athena, leaving it at the walls of Troy. On the side of the horse it was written that this was a gift for the goddess from the departing Danaans. Despite the warnings of the priest Laocoont and the prophetess Cassandra, the Trojans pulled the horse into the city. They were hiding inside it best warriors and when night came they killed the guards, let in the returning allies, and were thus victorious. The idea itself is attributed to the most cunning leader of the Danaans, Odysseus. This is where the expression “ Trojan horse", meaning a secret, insidious, cunning plan. Cunning combined with deceit decided the outcome of the war.
Cunning as such cannot be clearly defined as a virtue or a vice; in itself it does not carry a positive or negative charge. Only final goal resolves this issue. Cunning is an effective tool that gives a person the opportunity the shortest route achieve the goal. For example, with a scalpel you can save human life during an operation, you can cut the victim’s throat, you can use a knife to carve wood, making a wonderful drawing, or you can stab a person to death in a drunken fight. In other words, cunning as a tool of the mind cannot be counted as either an advantage or a disadvantage; it can be used if you strictly observe the commandment - do no harm, but use what you have for the benefit of yourself and others.
You can’t take a cunning, practical, resourceful mind with your bare hands; it will bite off seven dogs at a crossroads. Where intelligence and experience may stall, cunning, like a cat, will stand on all four paws. You just can’t attribute to her something to which she has nothing to do. When a person “walks over corpses” and trips someone up – this is not cunning at all, but meanness and baseness.
The positive or negative color of cunning directly depends on the qualities of fellow travelers. When cunning is combined with deceit, treachery and hypocrisy, then all that remains is to shout: “Save yourself, who can!”, and when it is in union with kindness, piety and generosity, it acquires an aura of wisdom, rationality and prudence.
Even Jesus Christ, being the Son of God, used cunning as a tool to combat his opponents. Let us remember the well-known provocation of the Pharisees with an unfaithful wife, when the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery and raised the question of the extent of her punishment. They well understood the cunning of the trap laid for Jesus. In chess, this position is called “zugzwang”, which means that any move by a player leads to a deterioration in his position. If he, according to sacred covenants Moses, would have advised to stone her, then he would have allowed a blatant contradiction with his teaching about forgiveness; if he asked to let her go, he would thereby condone sinfulness. Jesus acted wisely. He avoided answering directly, but did it so skillfully that no one could blame him. As John writes, Christ sat without looking at the Pharisees, as if thinking about his own things, and drew something with his finger on the ground. When they asked him to make a decision for the second time, Jesus looked up from what he was doing for a second and, as if by the way, said his famous phrase: “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her,” thereby shifting responsibility onto the Pharisees themselves and even forcing them to remember their guilty conscience.
Petr Kovalev 2013
In our lives we very often we are faced with a manifestation of cunning. In some cases, we ourselves resort to its help, but it also happens that we ourselves become its victim. We understand that we have come under the influence of cunning on an intuitive level, but no one can give a clear definition of cunning.
In the dictionaries the word is written that cunning is dexterity, ingenuity, fraud, deceit. Everything seems to be clear, but each of these words has its own immediate meaning. But cunning still has no meaning. Let's try to create it ourselves.
All words that mean trick in the dictionary- just the characteristics of a person, and cunning, in turn, contains them all within itself. Therefore, it must be considered as a set of human characteristics or as a quality.
In order to better understand this issue, let's look at examples of its manifestation. What first comes to your mind when you hear the word “cunning” is, of course, a fox, she’s cunning. It is Her image that has been ingrained in us since childhood, which would characterize the word cunning. So, for example, the moral of Krylov’s fable “ Crow and fox” tells us about how flattery affects a person. But not only the fox can be called a manifestation of cunning. For example, in such film genres as scams or detectives, stories are told about heroes and villains. To make it impossible to catch them, they come up with all sorts of useful tricks. And the detective, in turn, must have great skill and the ability to predict the thoughts of his opponent in order to catch him.
Here's an example from life. The so-called " feminine tricks" As a rule, women resort to cunning in order to... This means skillfully selected makeup, heels and corsets.
Sometimes with the help of useful tricks You can win both in disputes and in war. Of course, everyone knows the legend about the Trojan horse, which the Danaans decided to present as a gift. They created a structure that looked like a horse and presented it to the goddess Athena as a gift. On the side of the horse there was an inscription “ A gift to the goddess, from the departing Danaans" Despite the fact that the priest Laoconte warned the goddess, the Trojans drew in a gift, in the inside of which, as it turned out, wars were then hidden. When night fell, they killed all the guards and allowed their allies into the city. Thus, they won. talk about showing cunning in business and politics, of course, is pointless. In such areas of activity, it is simply impossible to do without such qualities.
In all the examples presented, cunning plays the role of human qualities. In each individual case, it is used as an indirect way to achieve one or another. Therefore, cunning can be called a set of characteristics of a person, with the help of which he, by deceitful or indirect means of distorting reality, achieves his goal.
Cunning at its core– this is a neutral quality that colors it, as a rule, the goal. With its help, you can both smooth out the conflict and aggravate it. Manipulation or deception, of course, is not good to use, and this can have a detrimental effect on relationships between people, but if you use cunning for good, then this is another question, the answer to which must be answered by the person himself.
We often encounter manifestations of cunning. It happens that we are cunning, and sometimes we ourselves “get hooked” by another person. We understand this intuitively, but there is no clear definition of cunning.
In an attempt to find this very definition, I turned to dictionaries. Cunning is defined as ingenuity, deceit, dexterity, fraud. And it seems clear, but still each of these words has its own (different) meaning. But cunning has no meaning.
Let's try to create it ourselves. All dictionary terms are characteristics of a person, and cunning seems to contain them all. Therefore, we will consider it as a quality or a set of personality characteristics. To better understand this, let’s analyze examples of cunning.
What most often comes to mind first when you hear the word “cunning”? Lisa, she's cunning. It is the image of a fox, with the help fiction, has been ingrained in us since childhood. Let's take for example the fable of I.A. Krylov "The Crow and the Fox". The basic moral talks about the effect of flattery on a person.
But think about it, the very way the fox thinks shows her cunning. In order not to waste time and effort on catching the crow, the cheat decides to use flattery. Here it acts as a means of achieving a goal indirectly, that is, as an instrument of cunning. After all, the fox, knowing about the influence of flattery, might not have taken advantage of it and would have remained hungry. This means that it is timely and appropriate use knowledge makes her cunning.
Not only the fox is a manifestation of cunning. For example, such genres of cinema and literature as detective stories and scams. To make it difficult to catch, the hero-villain comes up with clever and resourceful plans. While the detective must still have great skill and the ability to predict the thoughts and actions of an opponent in order to catch him.
Let's look at examples from real life everyday life. “Women's tricks” are quite well known. Most often, this is what is called the “arsenal” of representatives of the weaker sex to attract the stronger. Heels and corsets, to create more slim figure, skillfully chosen makeup, and similar things show the use of cunning in materially. But what about charm and charm? For example, a couple passes by a jewelry store. A woman, seeing something she likes, will say, “Look how beautiful it is!” Just a phrase, but with selected accompaniment (tone, facial expressions, gestures), will make her a happy owner of the jewelry.
And let’s say they are already a family. Cunning is no less evident here, especially in raising children. Parents sometimes have to show considerable ingenuity just to feed their child. For example, a plate with a design in the middle. “Eat everything and save the bear” motivates the child to finish everything. Or instead of asking “Will you eat?”, ask “What plate will you eat from today?” In the first option, the child is given the choice to eat or not, and the second allows him to choose from which plate, depriving the child of the opportunity to refuse food.
In all these examples, cunning appears as a quality of a person, whether it is Odysseus or his parents. Everywhere it is used as an indirect way to achieve one’s or common goal. And now we can give a definition: cunning is a set of personality characteristics with the help of which it, indirectly or fraudulently, distorting reality, achieves its goal. I would like to point out that cunning in itself is a neutral quality. It is mainly the purpose that gives it its color. With its help, you can both smooth out conflict at work and aggravate it. Of course, the use of deception or manipulation does not have a very good effect on subsequent relationships, but if it is for the greater good, then maybe all means are good? This is a relative question, so the answer is different for each person.
Each of these character traits is worthy of consideration and description in a separate large article. Think of cunning as highest manifestation combinations of these qualities.
In our lives, we very often encounter manifestations of cunning. In some cases, we ourselves resort to its help, but it also happens that we ourselves become its victim.
With the help of cunning, you can smooth out conflicts, or, on the contrary, you can aggravate them. It all depends on the person, sometimes we are cunning ourselves, and sometimes we fall for the cunning of another person.
Cunning is when a person hides his real plans, thoughts, feelings from other people in order to achieve his goal.
Cunning or deceit?
A trick is an act a person does to create a wrong opinion about someone or something in other people.
As a rule, cunning develops the skills of caution in a person. This is necessary to hide your thoughts, feelings and plans from other people. The trick is to hide your true intentions from others or in order to form misconception about your goal. IN military science There is complex plans who call the trick of war whose plan and true goal must be incomprehensible to the enemy. Cunning is a particularly sophisticated method of deception, with multi-move combinations and a deeply thought-out plan of deception. A trick is something complex in form or content that requires special art or skill to produce. The cunning of some business or phenomenon is a secret, the most complex, difficult thing to understand in this matter. In any case, Cunning should be considered as a set of human characteristics or as a quality of Character.
Manifestations of Cunning are multifaceted
As a rule, women resort to cunning in order to attract the attention of men. This means skillfully selected makeup, heels and corsets. The variety of cunning tricks women use is certainly amazing!
Sometimes with the help useful tricks You can win both in disputes and in war. Talking about cunning in business and politics is, of course, pointless. In such areas of activity, it is simply impossible to do without such qualities.
In all the examples presented, cunning plays the role of human qualities. In each individual case, it is used as an indirect way to achieve a particular goal.
Therefore, cunning can be called a set of characteristics of a person, with the help of which he, by deceitful or indirect means of distorting reality, achieves his goal.
Attitude to Cunning - in the main section of modern social society, Cunning is considered a dishonest way to achieve a goal, but acceptable for a noble purpose!
Cunning in its essence is a neutral quality; it is usually colored by the goal. And if the goal justifies and it is correct, fair, then achieving the goal with the help of Cunning is not condemned.
With the help of Cunning, you can both smooth out the conflict and aggravate it. Manipulation or deception, of course, is not good to use, and this can have a detrimental effect on relationships between people, but if you use cunning for good, then this is another question, the answer to which the person must answer for himself.
Many stories, fairy tales, sayings present cunning as a direct element of victory over bad person. It is possible that our society is not so perfect, or perhaps this is an element of simple physical survival of a person.
More interesting articles- read right now:
Sort Post Type
Post Page Category
Yours Strengths Feelings Character and quality of Personality Positive Properties Character Positive Feelings Positive Emotions Required knowledge Sources of happiness Self-knowledge Simple and complex concepts What does it mean? What is it? What does it mean? The meaning of life Laws and state Crisis in Russia Extinction of society About the insignificance of women Required reading for men Biological mechanisms Genocide of men in Russia Required reading for boys and men Androcide in Russia Core Values Negative properties Character 7 Deadly Sins Thought Process Physiology of Happiness Like Beauty Feminine beauty Goals Esoterics What is Cruelty What is A real man MEN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT Beliefs Basic values in life Basic human goals Sort Name Similar
