Tanya Thompson · 280 pages
Rating: (10.8K votes)
“Prisons are full of sociopaths and psychopaths, but when questioned, the imprisoned sociopath will honestly admit that they will commit any number of crimes to help a friend.
A friend will help you move; a true friend will help you move a body.
A friend will bail you out of jail; a true friend will be sitting beside you.
Who wouldn’t want to have a true friend? But they sound a lot like a sociopath.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“The absolute truth is a wicked sort of rush. It's far more amusing than any lie. Both have the potential to empower and to hurt, but the truth is emotionally superior. Few people could fault you for it, not when you got ethics on your side. The truth is morally unassailable.
But is has no pity. It is merciless.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“From what I've witness, honesty didn't really make anyone happy. The truth was a punch to the gut, and while you were falling, a knee to the face, then you could lie on the floor and bleed for a spell.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“From what I’d witnessed, honesty didn’t really make anyone happy. The truth was a punch to the gut, and while you were falling, a knee to the face, then you could lie on the floor and bleed for a spell.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“Do you know the difference between neurotics and psychotics?”
“Neurotics build castles in the sky; psychotics move into them.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“With the amount of diazepam in me, I should have been content to lie back and let events unfold as they may, and my curiosity did for a moment consider it, but then a punch of panic reminded me that people far saner than I were murdered for less in more conspicuous locations.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“this morning I go to pay for breakfast and there, right there at the Kroger check-out, staring me in the face is a national magazine with your picture on the cover. Counterfeit Countess, it said. In great big, bold type: Counterfeit! Countess! Counterfeit,” he reiterated, “a word interchangeable with forgery and often associated with arrest.” Ah, yes. Patrice had called from Austin and warned me she had sold the story to Woman’s World magazine. “Last sentence?” Mittwede asked. “You know what it is?’ “No, I’ve not seen it.” “Tanya says, ‘I’m going to grow up and be a con artist.’” It had struck me as pretty funny when I said it, but Mittwede had better delivery. I think it was the hysteria. He was saying, “I remember that story. That was like a year and a half ago. You didn’t tell me you were that girl, the Dallas Countess. I already knew the story but I read it again, and I know all the cops have read it again, too. And now your picture is with Passport Services and at the check-out counter. You think federal agents don’t buy groceries? You’re fucking crazy. We’re going to be arrested.” “You maybe need to take a Valium.” “I threw them all in the fire!” ~~~~~~”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“Do you know the difference between neurotics and psychotics?” He answered before I could speak, “Neurotics build castles in the sky; psychotics move into them.” And”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“In my case, intelligence was a disease that had led to a psychotic episode.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“merriment, making certain they understood it was a game where”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“As long as I held the angel mask firmly over my demonic smile, no one doubted my honesty. I”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“A friend will help you move; a true friend will help you move a body. A friend will bail you out of jail; a true friend will be sitting beside you. Who”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“I was an inexperienced fifteen-year-old sociopath who had never had any depth of emotion.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“Even though this was going to be the biggest act I had ever put on, I intended to play it as I always had—pure improvisation, all on impulse, with little more known than I would be playing the part of a countess.”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“He was praying for my soul. And he had a great many concerns. I stared at the carpet wondering when it was going to end, telling myself I needed to figure out this religion thing before I went any further, promising I would never make light of it again in front of someone who could put me on my knees. ~~~~~~”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“The truth was a punch to the gut, and while you were falling, a knee to the face, then you could lie on the floor and bleed for a spell. Ed”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“The absolute truth is a wicked sort of rush. It’s far more amusing than any lie. Both have the potential to empower and to hurt, but the truth is emotionally superior. Few people could fault you for it, not when you’ve got ethics on your side. The truth is morally unassailable. But”
― Tanya Thompson, quote from Assuming Names: A Con Artist's Masquerade
“The person that is able to concentrate utilizes all constructive thoughts and shuts out all destructive ones.”
― quote from The Power of Concentration
“In [the] early days, Muslims did not see Islam as a new, exclusive religion but as a continuation of the primordial faith of the ‘People of the Book’, the Jews and Christians. In one remarkable passage, God insists that Muslims must accept indiscriminately the revelations of every single one of God’s messengers: Abraham, Isaac, Ishamel, Jacob, Moses, Jesus and all the other prophets. The Qur’an is simply a ‘confirmation’ of the previous scriptures. Nobody must be forced to accept Islam, because each of the revealed traditions had its own din; it was not God’s will that all human beings should belong to the same faith community. God was not the exclusive property of any one tradition; the divine light could not be confined to a single lamp, belonged neither to the East or to the West, but enlightened all human beings. Muslims must speak courteously to the People of the Book, debate with them only in ‘the most kindly manner’, remember that they worshipped the same God, and not engage in pointless, aggressive disputes.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from The Case for God
“Do you trust Arman, Highness?'
'Yes, but--'
'No buts. Either you trust Him or you don't.'
Achan shifted in his chair. 'Maybe I don't, then.'
'I agree. you don't trust Him fully or you'd know you did. Arman wants your trust, Highness. When he asks something of you, he's seeking your heart. Your attitude, your disposition, your fears, your strengths, your obedience, your allegiance. All of you. When you trust Arman with your life, you run the risk of exposing your real fears. You run the risk of Arman having total authority and say in your life. Most men don't like that. They like to be in control.”
― Jill Williamson, quote from From Darkness Won
“Mickey Cray was surprised to learn that Derek Badger didn’t want any of his captive critters on location. Mickey had never wrangled for a nature show that used only wild animals, nor had he ever encountered a person less qualified than Derek to handle untamed specimens.”
― Carl Hiaasen, quote from Chomp
“Listen to me," cried Syme with extraordinary emphasis. "Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? It is that we have only known the back of the world. We see everything from behind, and it looks brutal. That is not a tree, but the back of a tree. That is not a cloud, but the back of a cloud. Cannot you see that everything is stooping and hiding a face? If we could only get round in front -”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Man Who Was Thursday
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