Quotes About Self-deception

we deceive ourselves in order to deceive others better. This hypothesis was tossed out during the mid-1970s by both Richard Alexander and Robert Trivers.

Como somos tortuosos. Como parecemos ou nos mostramos simples diante dos outros e no fundo como somos tortuosos. Que pouquinha coisa nós somos e de que maneira tão espetacular nos contorcemos diante de nós mesmos e diante dos outros (...). E tudo isso pra quê? Para ocultar o quê? Para fazer crer o quê?

Of all the people I could lie to, I'd always been best at lying to myself.

I told myself that I clenched my lips shut because it was the nobler thing to do, to keep these secrets to myself was better than to let the truth destroy her. Did I lie to myself, then? Don't we all?

When you cut pieces out of the truth to avoid looking like a fool you end up looking like a moron instead.

For sure, I would much rather look as if I have it all together and never make mistakes. But as the Bible cautions us, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."12

His further study of humanity had revealed just how much people could convince themselves that their own needs were those of the gods, and not the other way around.

she had known better. She should have sent Alex after him. She should have sent anyone after him but herself. Because she had known how it would end, and she had known where he would want it to go. Rather than accepting that, she had fooled herself into thinking that taking her, realizing her innocence, her feelings for him, that he would show a spark of possessiveness. Just a moment's hesitancy in sharing her with other men, with seeing another man touching her, taking her.

The Larks were bumbling entrepreneurs and petty thieves, but they were also self-deceived. While their moral standards for the rest of the world were rigid, they were always able to find excuses for their own shortcomings. It is these people really, said my father, small-time hypocrites, who may in special cases be capable of monstrous acts if given the chance.

Para ser, tenemos que narrarnos, y en ese cuento de nosotros mismos hay muchísimo cuento: nos mentimos, nos imaginamos, nos engañamos.

Porque el mentiroso que consigue copiosas alabanzas y pingües beneficios con sus mentiras prefiere creer que no está mintiendo y que todo lo que ha obtenido es merecido.

de nosotros mismos hay muchísimo cuento: nos mentimos, nos imaginamos, nos engañamos.

nosotros mismos hay muchísimo cuento: nos mentimos, nos imaginamos, nos engañamos.

Therefore do not deceive yourself! Of all deceivers fear most yourself!

A "no" does not hide anything, but a yes can very easily become a deception, a self-deception; which of all difficulties is the most difficult to conquer. Ah, it is all too true that, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

If he is not supposed to be that, then he is a hypocrite, and the higher he climbs on this path, the more dreadful a hypocrite he is.

Is it such a self-deception the present generation has need of, does it need to be trained to virtuosity in self-deception, or is it not rather sufficiently perfected already in the art of deceiving itself?

Are we so thoroughly convinced that we have attained the highest point that there is nothing left for us but to piously make ourselves believe that we have not got so far — just for the sake of having something left to occupy our time? Is it such a self-deception the present generation has need of, does it need to be trained to virtuosity in self-deception, or is it not rather sufficiently perfected already in the art of deceiving itself?

People think they are all sort of things they aren't' he had sad. 'They think they are talented when they're not; they think they're powerful when they're actually just bullies; they think they're good when they're bad. People fools themselves all the time, and they don't know that they're fools

Human beings have a remarkable talent for persuading themselves of the authenticity and nobility of aspects of themselves which are in fact expedient, spurious, base.

Every one of the world's great religions utterly trivializes the immensity and beauty of the cosmos. Books like the Bible and the Koran get almost every significant fact about us and our world wrong. Every scientific domain -- from cosmology to psychology to economics -- has superseded and surpassed the wisdom of Scripture. Everything of value that people get from religion can be had more honestly, without presuming anything on insufficient evidence. The rest is self-deception, set to music.

there is almost nothing more common than the belief that one is above average in intelligence, wisdom, honesty, etc.

Robert Trivers argues, for instance, that people who can believe their own lies turn out to be the best liars of all—and an ability to deceive rivals has obvious advantages in the state of nature.

Counting both times I cheated this week I won at solitaire twice.