Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Sophistry
Sophistry is like a window curtain—it pleases as an ornament, but its true use is to keep out the light.
—Anonymous
As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone,
And hides the ruin that it feeds upon,
So sophistry cleaves close to and protects
Sin’s rotten trunk, concealing its defects.
—William Cowper
Sophistry, like poison, is at once detected and nauseated when presented to us in a concentrated form; but a falsity which, when stated barely in a few sentences, would not deceive a child, may deceive half the world if diluted in a quarto volume.
—Richard Whately