Quotes About Self-deception

I am not sincere, even when I say I am not.

Nature does not deceive us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

The ego is like a clever monkey, which can co-opt anything, even the most spiritual practices, so as to expand itself. (155)

Yes, somehow I'd reached the point of mental instability where I was making up excuses to justify my actions to my own brain.

You seem to be under the misconception that if you perform one brave deed, that alone makes you a samurai. Well it doesn't! You let that one act of loyalty convince you of your righteousness. The more convinced you became, the more harm you caused yourself and everyone else.

Nobody knows what goes on in other families, because families lie about themselves to other people. Not only to other people but to one another. And to themselves.

This feeble attempt at self-deception only makes the truth harder when you're forced to meet it

Archie materialized, a vision of how aging men delude themselves into believing they have achieved peak allure.

Billy didn't need someone to pour him his drinks, he needed someone to tell him that living isn't poetry. It isn't prayer. To tell him and convince him. And none of us could do it because every one of us thought that as long as Billy believed it was, as long as he kept himself believing it, then maybe it could still be true.

In order to become whole we must try, in a long process, to discover our own personal truth, a truth that may cause pain before giving us a new sphere of freedom. If we choose instead to content ourselves with intellectual "wisdom," we will remain in the sphere of illusion and self-deception.

Modern man threw a brick through his own window in order to sell himself a burglar alarm.

Sometimes the biggest lies we tell are to ourselves.

But the downside of being con artist is that it very hard to con. Even if the lies you tell are to yourself.

Lies," Mr Solomon said the next morning as he walked into the classroom. "We tell them to our friends," he said. "We tell them to our enemies. And eventually...we tell them to ourselves.

Here's the thing about lying: a part of you has to mean it—even if it is a tiny, sinister, shred that only lives in the blackest, darkest parts of your mind. You have to want it to be true.

Pero el éxito era una receta poco compatible con el autoengaño.

Istnieje od bardzo dawna ogromna sekta idiotów, którzy przeciwstawiajÄ… zmysÅ'owo?? inteligencji. Powstaje bÅ'Ä™dne koÅ'o: odmawiajÄ… sobie rozkoszy, ?eby poprawi? swoje zdolnoÅ›ci intelektualne, co w efekcie prowadzi do ich zubo?enia. StajÄ… siÄ™ coraz gÅ'upsi, co z kolei utwierdza ich w przekonaniu, ?e sÄ… bÅ'yskotliwi - nic bowiem bardziej ni? gÅ'upota nie daje poczucia, ?e jest siÄ™ inteligentnym.

No doubt, corporate CEOs who lie to their shareholders and politicians who lie to their public know and believe intellectually that lying is immoral. Why then do they lie? They lie to others because they first lie to themselves.

For James, disgust with American hypocrisy and self-deception was pointless unless accompanied by an effort to give America reason to be proud of itself in the future. The kind of proto-Heideggerian cultural pessimism which Adams cultivated seemed, to James, decadent and cowardly.

We tend to assume that our hearts are pure, that we usually do the right thing, that we're better than average in almost every way you can imagine. Of course this is statistically impossible; it's just a comforting delusion. And

What a subtle, treacherous thing it was to let yourself go that way! Because once you've started it was terribly difficult to stop; soon you were saying "I'm sorry, of course you're right", and "Whatever you think is best", and "you're the most wonderful and valuable thing int he world", and the next thing you knew all honesty, all truth, was as far away and glimmering, as hopelessly unattainable as the world of the golden people.

If the same guy's still here, he's not really all that stable either. Actually has the balls to call himself Golden Arrow.

If tempted by something that feels "altruistic," examine your motives and root out that self-deception. Then, if you still want to do it, wallow in it!