"It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money."
— Canada Bill Jones, 19th century poker player
Dilbert: I'm just curious: Do you have any qualms about your business plan? Any at all?
Dogbert: I'm not sure. Do qualms make you wag?
— Dilbert
"I just don't understand it: I lie, I cheat, I steal, and I just don't get any respect."
— Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck, The A-Team
I’m out to steal every last moment’s peace out of my mark, not just his coin. Naught but doubts and despair shall fill the purses of my victims.
—Charlatan, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Career Compendium - The Ultimate Career Reference
Now, I'm a modest man, but my piecemeal needle scam's an outright masterpiece: some slob shacked up here buys a box of syringe parts from me for twice what it's worth. He assembles 'em in his rathole, and I buy back the finished product... for a dime against the dollar that I'll get from Ryan. Profit comin', profit goin'. Ol' Andy rambles on about the Great Chain... I got people shellin' out to pull it for me!
—Augustus Sinclair, Bioshock 2
"Are you not a Great Wizard?"
"Hush, my dear," he said. "Don't speak so loud, or you will be overheard—and I should be ruined. I'm supposed to be a Great Wizard."
"And aren't you?" she asked.
"Not a bit of it, my dear; I'm just a common man."
"You're more than that," said the Scarecrow, in a grieved tone; "you're a humbug."
"Exactly so!" declared the little man, rubbing his hands together as if it pleased him. "I am a humbug."
"I think you are a very bad man," said Dorothy.
"Oh, no, my dear; I'm really a very good man, but I'm a very bad Wizard, I must admit."
Even Dorothy had hope that "The Great and Terrible Humbug," as she called him, would find a way to send her back to Kansas, and if he did she was willing to forgive him everything.
Oz, left to himself, smiled to think of his success in giving the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman and the Lion exactly what they thought they wanted. "How can I help being a humbug," he said, "when all these people make me do things that everybody knows can't be done?"
Oh, it really doesn't matter what I do, what I do
As long as I do it with a flair
What effect a little smoke is with a dash of hocus-pocus
And the scent of burning sulfur in the air
I'm a fraud, a hoke, a charlatan, a joke
But they love me everywhere
For it really doesn't matter what I do, what I do
As long as I do it with a flair
—"With a Flair", Bedknobs and Broomsticks
