knavery

From their study of English history, they learned what might be called the law of knavery: there aren’t any good ways to get rid of a bad king.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 21, 2019

“I only know that it is mixed, that you cannot separate good from bad, that wisdom, courage and benevolence exist alongside knavery, greed and stupidity; heroism and fortitude alongside vainglory, cruelty and corruption.”

From New York Times ● Mar. 14, 2018

He looks upon the Trojan War, and all the warriors who risk their lives in it, with a vision that strips all noble motives away and sees only lechery, roguery, and knavery.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 9, 2016

We like to think of our transgressions as caused less by our own knavery than by the wrong genes or maltreatment in childhood.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 7, 2011

After years of deception, exploitation, and knavery, the Sixers have finally managed to buy and cheat their way to the entrance of the Third Gate.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

Told in the fictitious third person of Jim's confidant and publicity man, it records the entire gamut of his knaveries, but gives him where possible the benefit of the doubt.

From Time Magazine Archive

"No men are more clever in hiding their knaveries than magicians;" and in seven or eight other places he endeavors to expose "their falsehoods, their deceptions, the uselessness of their art," and laughs at it.

From The Phantom World or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c. by Christmas, Henry

"After all," said my adored Dorothy, "I prefer the rogue who when he goes about his knaveries has at least the decency to wear a mask."

From Gallantry Dizain des Fetes Galantes by Cabell, James Branch

And all these knaveries are assigned to characters which the reader is expected to honor with his sympathy, or at least to receive into favor before the story concludes.

From Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 6 by Lockhart, J. G. (John Gibson)

But most of all he abhorred the knaveries that craftsmen sometimes commit, of which, having been in France, and having heard something of them, he was only too well able to speak.

From Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects Vol 08 (of 10) Bastiano to Taddeo Zucchero by Vasari, Giorgio