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"A lot of fancier yarns come from people trying to tell the truth. It’s not easy once you’re out of the habit."

— Dashiell Hammett The Thin Man (1929)

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More quotes by Dashiell Hammett

"The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter."

The Maltese Falcon (1930)

Emotions are useless during business hours.

If a man says a thing often enough, he is very likely to acquire some sort of faith in it sooner or later.

But where knowledge of trickery is evenly distributed, honesty not infrequently prevails.

All successful bunko men come in time to believe the world, except for themselves, is populated with a race of human sheep who may be trusted to conduct themselves with true sheeplike docility.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Dashiell Hammett (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.