A charlatan (also called a swindler or 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.
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These two associates, the man and the wolf, made their profit at fairs, parish festivals, and in all the street corners where passers-by would gather, due to the need that people everywhere have to listen to nonsense and enjoy the sight of the charlatan.
Victor Hugo, L'uomo che ride, translation into Italian by L. Rossi, Editrice Lucchi, 1967 (incipit).
The charlatan studies diseases in diseased organs, where he finds only the effects, remaining ignorant of the causes. The true doctor studies the causes of diseases, studying the universal man.
Paracelsus, Paragranum, I; quoted in Franz Hartmann, Il mondo magico di Paracelso, translation by Mario Monti, Edizioni Mediterranee, Roma, 1982, p. 201.
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.
