Quotes About Self-deception

A dictator must fool all the people all the time and there's only one way to do that, he must also fool himself.

The one truth that would help us begin to solve our ethical and political problems [is] that we are all more or less wrong, that we are all at fault, all limited and obstructed by our mixed motives, our self-deception, our greed, our self-righteousness and our tendency to aggression and hypocrisy.

We perform all kinds of contortions of the mind to make a reason why it isn't really the way it looks, but we only fool the people who want to be fooled." "Maybe I knew, and forgot," he said, thinking back to his struggle to learn about himself, to piece together the evidence of what kind of a man he was, the good and the bad.

Oh, the lies that I have told myself and others. I knew it yet I didn't know.

But I lived a lie. I lived it out of anger. This is what I am trying to tell you. I have lived lies. I have done it again and again. I live lies because I cannot endure the weakness of anger and I cannot admit the irrationality of love. Oh the lies I have told myself and others. I knew it yet I didn't know.

People swindle themselves out of Salvation with great regularity.

I had robbed myself of my own Child of the Blood by my splendid designs.

4: Stories let us lie to ourselves. And those lies satisfy our desires.

God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another.

One consequence of the pursuit of an expansive power imaginary is the blurring of the lines separating reality from fancy and truth telling from self-deception and lying. In its imaginary, power is not so much justified as sanctified, excused by the lofty ends it proclaims, ends that commonly are antithetical to the power legitimated by the constitutional imaginary.

I knew I was being an idiot. But I figured if I kept being an idiot, if I didn't actually accept the truth, then the truth would become false.

Believe me, I know and I almost made the same mistake you did. Evil is seductive. It's what makes the two of them so dangerous. (Jericho) No. It's our willingness to believe their lies and to see what we want to see that makes it so dangerous. Even when we know better, we lie to ourselves and that's where the true betrayal is. (Jared)

And you take care, too, Shahara. Remember the lies we tell ourselves to survive seldom bring peace to our souls. (Nero)

The lies we tell ourselves to survive seldom bring peace to our souls. -Nero

But then, my entire life is bullshit. The best things in it have vanished, ghosts. Ghosts I'll admit I created.

People suffer all their life long, under the foolish superstition that they can be cheated. But it is impossible for a person to be cheated by anyone but himself.

There are times when all the lies you have told about yourself to yourself just fall away. In your twenties, you tell yourself the lie that you are unusual, unprecedented, and interesting. You do this largely by purchasing things or stealing things. You adorn yourself with songs and clothes and borrowed ideas and poses. In your thirties, you tell yourself the lie that you are still in your twenties.

Por qué resulta tan difícil comprender lo poderosa que es la capacidad de negación que tenemos todos? ¡Nunca queremos creer lo peor!

Few really believe. The most only believe that they believe or even make believe.

She has new hair and new boobs, but her insides are still rotten.

Don't fool yourself that they don't know. You might not admit that the sun exists, but it exists anyway.

The secret to getting away with lying, is believing with all your heart. That goes for lying to yourself even more so than lying to another

We can't help putting down roots. The best we can do is lie to ourselves about it.

A cuántos sofismas acudes diariamente para ocultarte que eres un cobarde? Yo soy un cobarde.