Quotes About Delusion

Coolidge believed that government officials who tell themselves that spending benefits the economy delude themselves and the citizens. Government budgets promote human freedom.

Women are women, and so are men, and the delusion that we are spiritually separate from or are about to spiritually separate from the rest of existence is a psychosis that spins us into virulence.

If the influence of luck is a delusion, then all I can say is that the delusion is virtually universal.

When a man mistakes his thoughts for persons and things, he is mad.

I never met another man I'd rather be. And even if that's a delusion, it's a lucky one.

a scattering of schizophrenic first worlders who have long ago burned their brains to ash in the radiant heat of their own imaginings

scattering of schizophrenic first worlders who have long ago burned their brains to ash in the radiant heat of their own imaginings.

I had fooled myself into thinking that I was something important to the rest of the world.

When we first started in Los Angeles, we thought of ourselves in our own delusional way as being a British band, even though we'd never been to England at that point, so musically it's kind of sometimes hard to place where we're from.

The mantra is to be positive, to be happy. This mania for optimism—for happiness—leads to fantasy being mistaken for reality. Reality is dismissed when it is unpleasant.

It's [Los Angeles] mostly full of nonsense and delusion and egomania. They think they'll be young and beautiful forever, even though most of them aren't even young and beautiful now.

T]hose who willed the means and wished the ends are not absolved from guilt by the refusal of reality to match their schemes.

Mass delusion is the only thing that keeps a people sane.

The 'pre-emption' versus 'prevention' debate may be a distinction without much difference. The important thing is to have it understood that the United States is absolutely serious. The jihadists have in the past bragged that America is too feeble and corrupt to fight. A lot is involved in disproving that delusion on their part.

All of these things cater to our inborn stupidity, and our willingness to be persuaded against all the evidence that we are indeed the center of the universe and that everything is arranged with us in mind.

I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument of a like nature, which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures. For so long, I presume, will the accounts of miracles and prodigies be found in all history, sacred and profane.

Actually, the leap of faith - to give it the memorable name that Soren Kierkegaard bestowed upon it - is an imposture. As he himself pointed out, it is not a leap that can be made once and for all. It is a leap that has to go on and on being performed, in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary. This effort is actually too much for the human mind, and leads to delusions and manias.

rare psychiatric malady that actually defines the idea—Cotard's delusion, the belief that one is already dead, or doesn't exist, or is putrefying, or has lost one's blood and inner organs.

The lunatic is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars.

Truly it seemed that a great people had gone mad; but it is a fact well known to alienists that you cannot convince a madman of his own condition, and only make him madder by trying.

Any sensible person knows that it's only postponing the evil hour, but when you're in debt up to your eyeballs, you stop thinking straight. You get into this self-deluding fantasy that if you can just get over this hump, you'll be heading towards getting straight again. Nobody cons themselves better than a bad debtor.

Love is for weak people, it's a delusion and it can be deadly.

When one has made up one's mind that things are going well, and that one has helped to make them go well, it takes some time to realize that in fact the opposite is true, and that things are not going well.

I bet all stalkers believe they're being romantic. I did it for love, officer.