Knaves and fools divide the world. [ Proverb ]

Two cunning knaves need no broker. [ Proverb ]

Because my blessings are abus'd,
Must I be censur'd, curs'd, accus'd?
Even virtue's self by knaves is made
A cloak to carry on the trade. [ Gay ]

We know that wealth well understood,
Hath frequent power of doing good;
Then fancy that the thing is done,
As if the power and will were one;
Thus oft the cheated crowd adore,
The thriving knaves that keep them poor. [ Gay ]

Mankind is born a fool, and is led by knaves. [ Benjamin Constant ]

When two knaves deal the devil drives the bargain. [ Proverb ]

Knaves imagine nothing can be done without knavery. [ Proverb ]

Where knaves fall out, honest men come by their own. [ Proverb ]

Fools! not to know how better, for the soul,
An honest half, than an ill-gotten whole:
How richer, he who dines on herbs, with health
Of heart, than knaves with all their wines and wealth. [ Hesiod ]

Honest men and knaves may possibly wear the same cloth. [ Proverb ]

Knaves are in such repute, that honest men are accounted fools. [ Proverb ]

Knaves will thrive when honest plainness knows not how to live. [ Shirley ]

If there were no knaves and fools, all the world would be alike. [ Proverb ]

He that has no fools, knaves, nor beggars in his family was begot by a flash of lightning. [ Proverb ]

No flattery, boy! an honest man cannot live by it; it is a little, sneaking art, which knaves use to cajole and soften fools withal. [ Otway ]

Fine speeches are the instruments of fools or knaves, who use them when they want good sense; but honesty needs no disguise or ornament. [ Otway ]