Charlatan

A w:charlatan (also called a w:swindler or w:mountebank) is a person practicing quackery or a similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, fame, or other advantages through pretense or deception. Synonyms for charlatan include shyster, quack, or faker. Quack is a reference to quackery or the practice of dubious medicine, including the sale of snake oil, or a person who does not have medical training who purports to provide medical services.

See also

• Fraud

Quotes

• It is a strange fact, but incontestible, that the philanthropist, who ardent in his desire to do good, who patient, reasonable and gentle, yet disdains to use other argument than truth, has less influence over men’s minds, than he who, grasping and selfish, refuses not to adopt any means, nor awaken any passion, nor diffuse any falsehood, for the advancement of his cause.
  • Mary Shelley, The Last Man (1826)

• Scharlatanen, die Dummköpfen ihre Drogen teuer verkaufen, glaube ich nichts." - Voltaire, Geschichte von Jenni
  • I don't believe in charlatans who sell fools their drugs at high prices."
    • Voltaire, The History of Jenni (1774)

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