Quotes About Rationalization

Why do I do anything?' she says. 'I'm educated enough to talk myself out of any plan. To deconstruct any fantasy. Explain away any goal. I'm so smart I can negate any dream.

Todo es justificable desde el propio punto de vista, y cada cual tiene el suyo, cargarse de razón es muy fácil.

Our desires seek out supporting reasons and tend to ignore facts and arguments that do not fit in with them.

It's harder to kill people. The empathy is so much stronger that the mind must invent new reasons. But, if we can somehow link it to our own survival, the mind will make the devious twists and turns necessary to rationalize it. We're very good at that.

The truly terrible thing is that everybody has their reasons.

The really terrible thing is that everyone has his reasons.

Yes, somehow I'd reached the point of mental instability where I was making up excuses to justify my actions to my own brain.

No doubt, corporate CEOs who lie to their shareholders and politicians who lie to their public know and believe intellectually that lying is immoral. Why then do they lie? They lie to others because they first lie to themselves.

To hold an idea and convince ourselves we arrived at it rationally, we go in search of evidence to support our view.

The proud do not change to improve, but defend their position by rationalizing. Repentance means change, and it takes a humble person to change.

Because cheating is easier when we can justify our behavior, people often cheat in small amounts: We can come up with an excuse for stealing Post-It notes, but it is much more difficult to come up with an excuse for taking $10,000 from petty cash.

Once we have made generous latitude for individual differences and schedules, we must firmly discipline ourselves to a regular pattern of prayer. We cannot assume that time will somehow magically appear. We will never have time for prayer—we must make time. On this score we have to be ruthless with our rationalizations. We must never, for instance, excuse our prayerlessness under the guise of "always living prayerfully.

If you have two years of sobriety behind you, then take a drink, you're much more likely to keep on drinking because the mere act of taking a drink—an irrevocable decision—will make you suddenly start to discount all the information and experience you have about the value of sobriety. You'll rationalize (I can control my drinking), minimize (A few drinks won't kill me), and deny (Well, I guess I never really was an alcoholic).

We do not always believe things because they're true. More often than not, we believe things because they're expedient.

Humans are fundamentally irrational. They use what precious rationality they have justifying their irrational behavior. A

The commonest weakness of our race is our ability to rationalize our most selfish purposes.

the human mind's ability to rationalize its own shortcomings into virtues is unlimited

part of the humor of living on this backward planet is listening to the hominids rationalize their predations.

The only drug I have ever been addicted to was nicotine, which I have quit five times in the last 20 years. Speaking from experience, I must say that Crowley has great understanding of the addict mentality and the way the biological need for the drug can generate "reasons" that almost seem rational at the time. Writing down the reasons for taking another cigarette, Crowley fashion, I have found is a real help in recognizing their self-deceiving quality and really quitting.

She was the most private person I knew, not even telling herself what her feelings were until she found a logical reason to justify them.

There was no excuse which didn't consist of inexcusable.

Anything can become excusable when seen from the standpoint of the result

No one who offers the "yes, but" rationalization actually engages in racist violence or even thinks that they are condoning it. But they are virtually guaranteeing that it will continue because what they are doing is facilitating it.

People sometimes rationalize their greed by saying that it is all for the good of their children but this is nothing but an excuse they use to make their despicable actions appear respectable and praiseworthy.