A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual operating alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty, honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, naïveté or greed.
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Famous quotes containing the words confidence and/or trick:
“Sincerity is a certain openness of heart. It is to be found in very few, and what we commonly look upon to be so is only a cunning sort of dissimulation, to insinuate ourselves into the confidence of others.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“It’s an old trick now, God knows, but it works every time. At the very moment women start to expand their place in the world, scientific studies deliver compelling reasons for them to stay home.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)