Quotes About Self-deception

Perhaps that is the true definition of pragmatism – an ability to deceive oneself and so turn one's back on principle, law or custom if they stand in the way of what one wants.

Now, here's a philosophical dilemma for a vicar … is it a lie if you don't know you're lying? Is it a lie if you're lying to yourself?" "Is it a sin if I tell my cousin to bugger off?

the biggest lie people tell themselves is that they prefer to know the truth.

At times, circumstances conspire to make us believe the lies we tell ourselves. Everything- the weather, the season, the fall of light- sets the stage for our play; we find ourselves, instead of acting, becoming the characters, moving into a reality in which we're inseparable from our roles.

deseaba tomar una esposa y vivir como un hombre normal... no para engañar a otros, sino para engañarse a sí mismo, convencerse de que no era diferente en modo alguno de otros hombres.

Most people managed to evade home truths with astonishing ease.

Whether we forget something we are not proud of, or embellish it, or blame somebody else, we want to save face by not owning up to shortcomings.

Claire had realized a long time ago that if you lie with enough conviction, you can usually fool yourself.

The addict's credo: It's always somebody else's fault.

If you have to say you're not doing something, then you probably are.

if you lie with enough conviction, you can usually fool yourself.

Perseus wore a magic cap so that the monsters he hunted down might not see him. We draw the magic cap down over our own eyes and ears so as to deny that there are any monsters.

Men who cannot deceive others are very often successful at deceiving themselves.

Let no one flatter himself; of himself he is Satan. Let man take sin, which is his own, and leave righteousness with God.

We make ourselves fools to disport ourselves And spend our flatteries to drink those men Upon whose age we void it up again With poisonous spite and envy.

There is nothing in which men more deceive themselves than in what they call zeal.

Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of a great design as of chance.

The vain.- We are like shop windows in which we are continually arranging, concealing or illuminating the supposed qualities other ascribe to us - in order to deceive ourselves.

The fool who recognizes his foolishness, is a wise man. But the fool who believes himself a wise man, he really is a fool.

Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal.

Man has always sacrificed truth to his vanity, comfort and advantage. He lives not by truth but by make-believe.

Because all men are apt to flatter themselves, to entertain the addition of other men's praises is most perilous.

Drink never made a man better, but it has made many a man think he was better.

A man often thinks he rules himself, when all the while he is ruled and managed; and while his understanding directs one design, his affections imperceptibly draw him into another.