Quotes About Self-deception

The madman is not only a beggar who thinks he is a king, but also a king who thinks he is a king.

Life is a very sad piece of buffoonery, because we have… the need to fool ourselves continuously by the spontaneous creation of a reality (one for each and never the same for everyone) which, from time to time, reveals itself to be vain and illusory.

I learned in high school, if I hold up an effigy, a mask, or a lie, that mask will get all the love, not me.

A fool flatters himself, a wise man flatters the fool.

We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more.

To put it bluntly, your flesh is a weasel, a poser, and a selfish pig. And your flesh is not you. Did you know that? Your flesh is not the real you.

In a competition for mates a well developed capacity for self-deception is an advantage. The same is true in politics and and other contexts

The endless, agonizing recycling of what might have been, soon followed by a litany of rationalizations and self-deceptions as you struggle to reconcile the void between the person you want to be and the person you fear you are..

A form of self-delusion.

It is only when you're lying to yourself or hating some aspect of yourself that you'll get an emotional charge from someone else's behavior.

Lean into the sharp points and fully experience them. The essence of bravery is being without self-deception. Wisdom is inherent in (understanding) emotions.

When you aren't sincere you need to pretend, and by pretending you end up believing yourself; that's the basic principle of every faith.

You can fool the world with your smiles, but you can never fool your heart.

The most confused we ever get is when we try to convince our heads of something our hearts know is a lie.

We live in a world full of people who are satisfied with pretending to be someone they are not.

When you really love someone you really don't want to believe that they're a bad person so you convince yourself that they're not bad.

Whatever others may say, they say it to deceive and comfort themselves, not help you.

I tell everyone I'm over you. I tell myself I hate you. But whenever I look at you, I feel myself falling for you.

Le pire mensonge est de se mentir à soi-même.

you can never really get rid of a lie you've convinced yourself is true.

It's amazing how much you can rationalize when you're on drugs. I could actually say to myself, "Look, I'm only doing blow Wednesday through Saturday.

It is not only by dint of lying to others, but also of lying to ourselves, that we cease to notice that we are lying.

The links between another person and ourselves exist only in our minds. Memory weakens them as it fades, and despite the illusions which we hope will deceive us and with which, whether from love, friendship, politeness, human respect or from duty, we hope to deceive others, we exist on our own. Man is a being who cannot move beyond his own boundaries, who knows others only within himself, and if he alleges the contrary, he is lying.

The pretended desires of many to behold the glory of Christ in heaven, who have no view of it by faith while they are here in this world, are nothing but self-deceiving imaginations.