99 Quotes About Pretending

We’ve all done it. Pretending to be someone or something you’re not, often to fit in or to meet expectations. But is it the right thing to do? Does it make you happy? Is it worth sacrificing your true self? Do you feel like you’re living a lie? So many questions! Let these clever pretending quotes answer them for you.

A daily dose of daydreaming heals the heart, soothes the...
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A daily dose of daydreaming heals the heart, soothes the soul, and strengthens the imagination. Richelle E. Goodrich
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Well enough, ” I reply. “Remember, you’re drunk. And happy. You’re supposed to be lusting over your escort. Try smiling a little more.” like I’m lusting? This is me, lusting.” His lashes flutter at me. better. Marie Lu
I have always been afraid... Always been pretending to follow...
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I have always been afraid... Always been pretending to follow you closely, alwyas been pretending to sharpen my teeth, when the truth is, I am ... scared to death just treading on your shadow. Tite Kubo
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Of all the major religions, or lack thereof, the atheist's is one of the best pretenders: his foundation for all existences, as well as moral behaviors for the permanent good of mankind, begins at science but ends at himself, the Napoleon complex of both intelligence and imagination. On the other hand the anti-theist wouldn't survive without a deity beyond himself to hunt. He doesn't pretend, he simply nullifies his own position. Criss Jami
But maybe happiness isn't in the choosing. Maybe it's in...
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But maybe happiness isn't in the choosing. Maybe it's in the fiction, in the pretending: that wherever we have ended up is where we intended to be all along. Lauren Oliver
Dear today, i spend all of you pretending i'm okay...
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Dear today, i spend all of you pretending i'm okay when i'm not, pretending i'm happy when i'm not, pretending about everything to everyone. Nina Lacour
For a sane person to sincerely be happy that someone...
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For a sane person to sincerely be happy that someone has succeeded, they have to either be profiting or likely to profit from that person’s success, or be that person. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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Do you think they’ll ever be a place for us? I mean, do you think there’s a place for someone who lives under the radar, someone who has to pretend, someone who is a spy?” “Yes.” Daly said it with such confidence that I sat up in my bed, my cast dangling over the edge. “How do you know?” I asked. “There has to be. I don’t usually philosophize, but I do know one thing.” “What’s that?” “That even when we’re pretending, even when we’re hiding under wigs or accents or clothes that aren’t our style, we can’t hide our nature. Just like I knew from the moment I met you that you would choose this life. And just like I knew, when you told me about this mission, that you would agree to help the CIA find this girl. You would sacrifice yourself and your time with your brother to save someone. It’s just who you are.” “I’ve already messed things up, Daly. What if I’m not good enough? What if I can’t do it?” “That’s the thing, though. You’ll find a way.” I lay back again and buried the side of my face into my pillow. “I’m just not sure how.” “If you continue to think as you’ve always thought, you’ll continue to get what you’ve always got, ” Daly said. I considered that. I wasn’t ready to give up. At least not yet. “That one is Itosu wisdom, in case you wondered.” I yawned into the phone. “It’s good advice.” “I’ll let you go. You should be resting. Don’t you have school in the morning?” He said the last part in a teasing tone. “Yeah, if I make it through another day at school. Maybe they’ll get rid of me–kick me out or something. You’d think I would have inherited some of my mom’s artistic genius.” “Can I give you one last bit of advice, Alex?” “Sure.” “Throw it all out the window.” “What?” I stared at my open window. A slight breeze blew the gauzelike drapes in and out as if they were a living creature. “Everything you’ve learned about art, the lines, the colors, the pictures in your head from other artists–just throw it all out. And throw out everything you’ve learned from books and simulations about being a good spy. Don’t try to be like someone else. Don’t force yourself to follow a set of rules that weren’t meant for you. Those work for 99.99% of the people.” “You’re telling me I’m the. 01%?” I asked skeptically. “No, I’m telling you you’re not even on the scale.” Daly’s soft breathing traveled through the phone line. “With a mind like yours, you can’t be put in a box. Or even expected to stand outside it. You were never meant to hold still, Alex. You have to stack all the boxes up and climb and keep climbing until you find you. I’m just saying that Alexandra Stewart will find her own way.” The cool night air brushed the skin of my arm and I wished it was Daly’s hand instead. “You sure have a lot of wisdom tonight, ” I told him. I expected him to laugh. Instead, the line went silent for a moment. “Because I’m not there. Because I wish I was.” His words were simple, but his message reached inside my heart and left a warmth–a warmth I needed. “Thank you, James.”“Take care, Alex.” I wanted to say more, to keep him at my ear just a little longer. Yet the words itching to break free couldn’t be said from over two thousand miles away. They needed to happen in person. I wasn’t going home until I found Amoriel. Which meant I had to complete this mission. Not just for Amoriel anymore. I had to do it for me. (page 143). Robin M. King
Most human beings would have never been pained by the...
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Most human beings would have never been pained by the death of a human being if they had never seen a human being or pretending to be pained by that. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Once you drop a mask, you can never wear it...
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Once you drop a mask, you can never wear it again. Ljupka Cvetanova
Plants are more courageous than almost all human beings: an...
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Plants are more courageous than almost all human beings: an orange tree would rather die than produce lemons, whereas instead of dying the average person would rather be someone they are not. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
It is much harder to pretend than it is to...
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It is much harder to pretend than it is to simply be who you already are. Susan Meissner
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A young woman forced to keep drunks supplied with beer and siblings with cleanunderwear–instead of being allowed to pursue something higher –stores up greatreserves of vitality, a vitality never dreamed of by university students yawning over theirbooks. (..) The difference between the universitygraduate and the autodidact lies not so much in the extent of knowledge as in theextent of vitality and self-confidence. The elan with which Tereza flung herself into hernew Prague existence was both frenzied and precarious. She seemed to be expectingsomeone to come up to her any day and say, What are you doing here? Go back whereyou belong!. Milan Kundera
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Running’ is driven by panic. ‘Destination’ is driven by thought. And while it’s terribly painful to admit, incessantly pretending that I do the latter doesn’t replace the fact that I’m constantly doing the former. Craig D. Lounsbrough
God’s eyes readily see beyond our actions, for our actions...
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God’s eyes readily see beyond our actions, for our actions are simply fear and selfishness pretending to be us. Craig D. Lounsbrough
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As Isabel acted out her date, both of them laughing, I stayed in the kitchen, out of sight, and pretended she was telling me, too. And that, for once, I was part of this hidden language of laughter and silliness and girls that was, somehow, friendship. Sarah Dessen
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I pretend to give gifts that people pretend to be gifts so that I can pretend that I gave something that actually cost me something. And what pretending or this sort gives me is the gift of a pretend life. Craig D. Lounsbrough
I'll pretend, I tell myself. Pretending is safer than believing.
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I'll pretend, I tell myself. Pretending is safer than believing. Sarah Miller
Some disabled people spend a significant amount of their energy...
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Some disabled people spend a significant amount of their energy on trying to come across as abled or as not that disabled. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
To pretend is to do nothing more than imagine life...
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To pretend is to do nothing more than imagine life as something wonderful so that we don’t have to incur the pain that it takes to actually make life wonderful. Craig D. Lounsbrough
The best I can do is to ‘pretend’ that I’m...
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The best I can do is to ‘pretend’ that I’m my own god. But in the pretending I have to pretend that I’m not pretending, and somehow that doesn’t sound very god-like to me. Craig D. Lounsbrough
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Humility is the greatest shaper of souls and crafter of character, for it wipes away all the grandiose things that we spend so much of our lives pretending to be, so that we can spend all of our lives being the exceptional person that we were actually created to be. Craig D. Lounsbrough
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Insecure people often falsify the past, in order to make the future pure. Shannon L. Alder
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Time and time over it is the ones who try a little too hard to be innovative rebels - and for the sheer glory of being considered innovative rebels - who then turn out not quite as innovative or as rebellious as they would like to think they are. Criss Jami
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You can trust bad liars. Toba Beta
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How crazy it would be if the moon did spin and the earth stood still and the sun went dim! How absolutely ludicrous if snakes could walk and kids could fly and mimes did talk! How silly it would be if the nights were tan and the mornings green and the sun cyan! How totally ridiculous if horses chirped and spiders sang and ladies burped! How shocking it would be if the dragons ruled and the knights were daft but the fish were schooled! How utterly preposterous if rain were dry and snowflakes warm and real men cried! I love to just imagineall the lows as heights, and the salty, sweet, and our lefts as rights. Perhaps it is incredibleand off the hook, but it all makes sensein a storybook!   . Richelle E. Goodrich
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Stop entertaining two faced people. You know the ones who have split personalities and untrustworthy habits. Nine times out of ten if they telling you stuff about another person, they're going to tell your business to other people. If they say, "You know I heard....." More than likely it's in their character to share false information. Beware of your box, circle, square! Whatever you want to call it. Amaka Imani Nkosazana
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This was a new skill she'd acquired, the ability to look, to the outside world, utterly serene and even cheerful, while, in her skull, all was chaos. Dave Eggers
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If reshaping a life style boils down to pretending and dwindling into a world of make-believe, living may turn into a schizophrenic merry-go-round and the real self might be crunched and munched on, piece by piece. (“He did not know that she knew”) Erik Pevernagie
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At cocktail parties, I played the part of a successful businessman's wife to perfection. I smiled, I made polite chit-chat, and I dressed the part. Denial and rationalization were two of my most effective tools in working my way through our social obligations. I believed that playing the roles of wife and mother were the least I could do to help support Tom's career. During the day, I was a puzzle with innumerable pieces. One piece made my family a nourishing breakfast. Another piece ferried the kids to school and to soccer practice. A third piece managed to trip to the grocery store. There was also a piece that wanted to sleep for eighteen hours a day and the piece that woke up shaking from yet another nightmare. And there was the piece that attended business functions and actually fooled people into thinking I might have something constructive to offer. I was a circus performer traversing the tightwire, and I could fall off into a vortex devoid of reality at any moment. There was, and had been for a very long time, an intense sense of despair. A self-deprecating voice inside told me I had no chance of getting better. I lived in an emotional black hole.p20-21, talking about dissociative identity disorder (formerly multiple personality disorder). Suzie Burke
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She kept hoping something would change, but she knew she'd lost him to a world she could never be part of. So instead she pretended. Pretended to be strong. Pretended everything was alright. Pretended for Michael, for herself, but most of all for Willow. Because Willow loved Michael, and he, her — that much was obvious Dominique Wilson
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Children are very wiseintuitively; they know who loves them most, and who only pretends. V.C. Andrews
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Life's a lot different from what people pretend. That's why pretending is fun. I used to think it was some special wickedness of my own that made such queer things happen. Now I'm beginning to guess that everybody's like that. Christopher Morley
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We ought to punish pitilessly that shameful pretence of friendly intercourse. I like a man to be a man, and to show on all occasions the bottom of his heart in his discourse. Let that be the thing to speak, and never let our feelings be beneath vain compliments Unknown
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I always am in a role, lovely — for you, for them — even for myself. Yeah... Even when I’m alone, I am still in a role — and I myself am the most exacting audience I have ever had. Simona Panova
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Emotions don’t interfere in my acting, nor in my life. Simona Panova
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Pretending doesn't require expensive toys. Fred Rogers
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Who did I think we were.who did I think I could make you.this is the oldest mistake, to confuse wantingwith magic. silence is the undoingof every spell, and we are expertsin the unsaid. even now, I forgetto put us in past tense. as ifthe air in this city were the same.as if love is anything like its speaking. Unknown
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Throw off your grief, ' doubters imply, 'and we can all go back to pretending death doesn't exist, or at least is comfortably far away. Julian Barnes
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To understand pretending is to conquer all barriers of time and space. William Joyce
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You shouldn’t have to pretend to be as excited as I am just to make me happy. If it comes to that, you shouldn’t have to pretend to be anything around me. Friends should be real with each other J.M. Richards
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Whatever is above will be managed by the powers above you. Don’t live as a man, pretending to be God. Do what you can do; leave what you can’t to God! Israelmore Ayivor
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The best way to see majesty is to strip away everything that pretends to be majestic so that which is fake wholly collapses in the face of that which is majestic. And God in a manger is likely the most remarkable example we have of such a monumental truth. Craig D. Lounsbrough
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Kindness is an extraordinary moment and status even if it has to be pretending. M.F. Moonzajer
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Like a Columbus of the heart, mind and soul I have hurled myself off the shores of my own fears and limiting beliefs to venture far out into the uncharted territories of my inner truth, in search of what it means to be genuine and at peace with who I really am. I have abandoned the masquerade of living up to the expectations of others and explored the new horizons of what it means to be truly and completely me, in all my amazing imperfection and most splendid insecurity. Anthon St. Maarten
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You have to pretend like you know what you’re doing before you know what you’re doing. Cody McLain
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And I wasn’t playing a role — I was trying to be myself. But the harder I was striving, the more I was realizing that I had probably lost that ‘myself’ somewhere between two perfectly performed roles... Simona Panova
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His character would be blamed, loathed, discussed, and adored — but somewhere there, behind his mask of a hero, Cardew would remain faceless. Anonymous. Simona Panova
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There is comfort in knowing that you don’t have to pretend anymore, that you are going to do everything within your power to heal. Ellen Bass
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I lie more convincingly than I tell the truth. Simona Panova
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Absolutely. No more pretending! Dana Burkey
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We have been pretending for a long time to be limited beings. Raphael Zernoff
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Thinking was torment; why not give up thinking, and drift and dream? But the misery of the world, she thought, forces me to think. Or was that a pose? Was she not seeing herself in the becoming attitude of one who points to his bleeding heart? to whom the miseries of the world are misery, when in fact, she thought, I do not love my kind. Again she saw the ruby-splashed pavement, and faces mobbed at the door of a picture palace; apathetic, passive faces; the faces of people drugged by cheap pleasures; who had not even the courage to be themselves, but must dress up, imitate, pretend. Virginia Woolf
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She represents something about the corporate world that repel me, some deep coldness masked as relentless cheerfulness. Barbara Ehrenreich
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You're like this...this goddess pretending to be human... And I don't know which one I love. Thomm Quackenbush
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Heroes are hero no matter if everybody is watching them or nobody watching them. Amit Kalantri
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You don't have to pretend with me, you know.' He reaches out and tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. His expression is so open and honest I feel it like a sucker punch. 'I used to pretend, all the time, so I can spot it a mile away. If you're feeling shit, then just say so. I don't need to know the reason, it might be none of my business–' 'I'm feeling shit. Ellie Marney
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Don't pretend to be what you're not, instead, pretend to what you want to be, it is not pretence, it is a journey to self realization. Michael Bassey Johnson
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There's a difference between playing and playing games. The former is an act of joy, the latter – an act. Vera Nazarian
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Well...letting the cat out of the bag is a lot easier than putting it in. Charles Martin
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Stop Pretending Anything Than What You Really Are_nickc Nick Catricala
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I became good at pretending. I became so good that after a while the lines blurred between my truth and fiction. And sometimes, when I did a really good job of pretending, I even fooled myself. Ruta Sepetys
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Mostly, it is lies that will destroy a relationship. Deceit is a barrier to intimacy. André Chevalier Nikki Sex
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I am smiling a big adopted-orphan smile as I write this. .. I still love scribbling the word - WRITER - any time on a form, questionnaire, document asks for my occupation. Fine, I write personality quizzes, I don't write about the Great Issues of the Day, but I think it's fair to say I am a writer. .. ('Adopted-orphan smile', I mean, that's not bad, come on.) Gillian Flynn
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Hell, is trying to do what you can't do, trying to be what you're not Anzia Yezierska
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So from then on, he looked at all his choices and said, What would a good person do, and then did it. But he has now learned something very important about human nature. If you spend your whole life pretending to be good, then you are indistinguishable from a good person. Relentless hypocrisy eventually becomes the truth. Orson Scott Card
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Quit pretending to be humble when you are really just a self-abusing, emotional, drama junkie. Bryant McGill
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Only those who are brainwashed and foolsbelieve in the existence of a god. Those who are indifferent just pretend. A.J. Beirens
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Today's zealots are mostly those pretending to be anti-religious. Criss Jami
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Pretending to be good might be the same with pretending to be right, its just you are selfish on your own because you think only for yourself.. Jinnul Jr.
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So many of us hide from ourselves and we don't even know who we are and why were we here? All peoples will prove they are better and put fake masks on their own faces. Every people pretend herself what they actually not from inside. Afraid to show the reality and hide their best quality. You just have to learn to be yourself and what really makes you happy, or other things that are not important and what others think of you is not important at all. . Silentknight0
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Not that it matters an awful amount in the grand play of things. And it is play. All of it. It's not real. You have to live your life like you're pretending. An actor living a character's life. Otherwise you won't take risks. You won't live. Laura Dockrill
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It was like when we were little kids and we played games on the ivy-covered hillside in the backyard. We were warriors and wizards and angels and high elves and that was our reality. If someone said, Isn’t it cute, look at them playing, we would have smiled back, humoring them, but it wasn’t playing. It was transformation. It was our own world. Our own rules. Francesca Lia Block
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What is more important - Pretending to live OR living your life? Forget about what others think about you and your way of living. Live your life the way you like it. Manoj Arora
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I pretend to give gifts that people pretend to be gifts so that I can pretend that I gave something that actually cost me something. And what pretending of this sort gives me is the gift of a pretend life. Craig D. Lounsbrough
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I can be anything — and nothing, and everything at the same time. It all depends on the role I am in. Simona Panova
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An educated theologian: someone who's better at rationalizing what they're pretending to know. Peter Boghossian
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I’m tired of pretending, tired of acting like everything’s okay, tired of not being with him… Terra Elan McVoy
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Pretend that you're a clever shepherd girl, and you're just dressed up in pretty clothes, and you're trying to make everybody believe that you're a spoiled, empty-headed little princess. So no one guesses that under your clothes you're a brave shepherd girl who climbs trees and chases away wolves with your staff. Johanna Sinisalo
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Growing up seemed to mean that the only kind of pretending that was still safe was pretending we could do without it. Saleema Nawaz
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That's the downside of growing up. There's a lot of pretending involved. We frequently act like someone other than who we really are because we don't know or aren't comfortable with our true selves. Connor Franta
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Pretending to feel something you don't can often lead you to the real thing, in some form. Stacey Kade
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That's such bullshit, Mythology repeated by parents because it lets them force their kids into sports and push them too hard by pretending that in the end it will pay off with the holy scholarship. You know how many kids get a free ride? Hardly any. Like, maybe fourteen.' -Finn (165) Laurie Halse Anderson
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Well enough, ” I reply. “Remember, you’re drunk. And happy. You’re supposed to be lusting over your escort. Try smiling a little mo Marie Lu
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Mama wasn't dead...exactly. They all said she was, but when Elma was small, she seen Mama creep into her room at night, half-naked, head all bloodied red like when they found her by the well that day, and Elma reckoned dead just meant pretendin' you couldn't move or breathe until nightfall when you got up and walked around like you was free. Shannon Celebi
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Pretending is such a hard game to play sometimes. Bushra Khanum
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Pretending is the fastest way to believing, and believing is the fastest way to receiving. Mike Dooley
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Pretending is one of our greatest pleasures. But you have to know you're pretending. Marty Rubin
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A dog might feel as majestic as a lion, might bark as loud as a roar, might have a heart as mighty and brave as a Lion's heart, But at the end of the day, a dog is a dog and a lion is a lion. Charlyn Khater
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There's a great deal of power in pretending. Suzanne Palmieri
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I've learned to get really good at this - say one thing when I'm thinking about something else, act like I'm listening when I'm not, pretend to be calm and happy when I'm really freaking out. It's one of the skills you perfect as you get older Lauren Oliver
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Worried about fitting in, being part of a group, feeling accepted? People gather in groups of similar interests, but these interests are usually based on external preferences and attires.“ We think that if other people like this sport or activity, they’ll accept us without an interview or further questions, and we need that because we are afraid of standing naked in front of others, of showing whom we really are underneath the fake smiles and bland expressions of anger and pain: this nakedness is one of the heart and mind.“ It’s within these groups that most people find their ‘soul-mates’ and ‘fall in love’ with the person they’ll never get to know for real.“ Little did you know, you have to keep pretending to be someone else, while your partner is exhausted from having to put on a daily show just to please you. Nityananda Das
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We gotta be willing to let it hurt. You know, all this notion that acting is “yeah it’s pretend” and yes we enjoy it and yeah we can have a good time with it. But if you wanna LAND, you wanna make an impact, you want those FUCKERS TO REMEMBER YOU! Then you have to let it hurt sometimes. You gotta get there because that’s all an audience ever wants. Is for you to open up your chest and show them that you have a fucking heart. That’s all we want. A heart. A human being. Not an affectation. Kevin Spacey
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Above the keyhole the door has a latch. It is pretending to be an authentic old latch. The door is pretending to be an authentic old door. Maybe everything there is isn't authentic any more. Maybe everything there is is a kind of pretending. Ali Smith
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You shattered the remainder of my heart, yet you expect me to be okay with it day after day. Ahmed Mostafa
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Have you killed a man, drowned a crocodile, hunted a wolf, or raped an abuser? Stop pretending you love someone. M.F. Moonzajer
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After writing the letter Sybil lost almost two days. "Coming to, " she stumbled across what she had written just before she had dissociated and wrote to Dr. Wilbur as follows: It's just so hard to have to feel, believe, and admit that I do not have conscious control over my selves. It is so much more threatening to have something out of hand than to believe that at any moment I can stop (I started to say "This foolishness") any time I need to. When I wrote the previous letter, I had made up my mind I would show you how I could be very composed and cool and not need to ask you to listen to me nor to explain anything to me nor need any help. By telling you that all this about the multiple personalities was not really true I could show, or so I thought, that I did not need you. Well, it would be easier if it were put on. But the only ruse of which I'm guilty is to have pretended for so long before coming to you that nothing was wrong. Pretending that the personalities did not exist has now caused me to lose about two days. Flora Rheta Schreiber
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Sometimes I have to pretend I feel brave before I actually do. Sometimes I never make it past the pretending part. But those days are getting fewer and further between. Nicole Williams