Self deception Quotes

Self-deception helps us deceive.

— David Livingstone

Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.

— George Orwell

Our capacity for self-deception has no known limits

— Michael Novak

“some truths that were too difficult and frightening to know.”

— Elyn R. Saks

“I was trying to be someone else.”

— K. Ritz

“Reality blithely ignores the lies we tell ourselves about it.”

— Chris Cogan

The essence of bravery is being without self-deception.

— Pema Chodron

Self-deception is sometimes as necessary a tool as a crowbar.

— Moss Hart

“The only difference between fiction and religion is that people don't kill themselves over fiction.”

— Ahmed Mostafa

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

— Samuel Johnson

“The mind is capable of amazing feats of self-deception in order to keep its fragile ego intact. My”

— Nat Kozinn

Self-deception, sometimes called self-sabotage kills dreams faster than deception from others.

— Anonymous

Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred.

— Carl Sagan

“The path of truth is profound—and so are the obstacles and possibilities for self-deception.”

— Chögyam Trungpa

“I think that before and after we kissed are two different timelines.”

— Ahmed Mostafa

Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky

The most transformative experiences people have - bliss, devotion, self transcendence - are currently anchored to the worst parts of culture and…

— Sam Harris

“Heraclitus called self-deception an awful disease and eyesight a lying sense.” —DIOGENES LAERTIUS, LIVES OF THE EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS,”

— Ryan Holiday

“Sometimes I speak to men and women just as a little girl speaks to her doll. She knows, of course, that the…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

It is self-love and its offspring self-deception, which shut the gates of heaven, and lead men, as if in a delicious dream,…

— Christian Scriver

If people are innately saddled with certain sins and flaws, like selfishness, prejudice, sort-sightedness, and self-deception, then political reform would seem to…

— Steven Pinker

It is easy to become the dupe of a deferred purpose, of the promise the future can never keep, and I had…

— Jane Addams

“[A]n old writer’s memory is the whore of his imagination. We all reinvent our pasts, I said, but writers are in a…

— John le Carré

In the horrifying calculus of self-deception, the greater the pain we inflict on others, the greater the need to justify it to…

— Carol Tavris

Like Karl Kraus [Wittgenstein], was seldom pleased by what he saw of the institutions of men, and the idiom of the passerby…

— Thomas Szasz

Self-deception is so far from impossible that it is one of the most ordinary phenomena with which we are acquainted. Nothing is…

— William Godwin

“This business of 'kidding yourself' worries me. I don't even know how much self-deception I'm involved in. It's hard to get down…

— Seth

“Man's unconscious believes that it must use deception and self-deception to allow the conscious mind to survive and justify itself within our…

— D.R. Cozen

“...'fundamentalism' and 'liberalism' and terrorism.' These labels only tell us partial truths. We must use them humbly, guardedly, Niebuhr would say, aware…

— Krista Tippett

There is nothing disastrous in the temporary nature of our ideas. They are always that. But there may very easily be a…

— Walter Lippmann

Meditation is not a matter of trying to achieve ecstasy, spiritual bliss, or tranquillity, nor is it attempting to become a better…

— Pema Chodron

If you asked me what makes the world go round, I would say self-deception. Self-deception allows us to create a consistent narrative…

— Errol Morris

“She discovered, when it was too late, that she had mistaken the means for the end—that riches, rightly used, are instruments of…

— Thomas Love Peacock

“We might erroneously believe that maitri is a way to find a happiness that lasts; as advertisements so seductively promise, we could…

— Pema Chödrön

“But self-deception of this kind (ed persecution) cannot lead to any solid happiness. In the back of your mind you will know…

— Bertrand Russell

“For I am—or I was—one of those people who pride themselves in on their willpower, on their ability to make a decision…

— James Baldwin

“philosophers have noted that people who habitually deceive finally fall for their own deceptions. This is the well-known phenomenon that confidence artists…

— Joseph Agassi

“As long as you regard yourself or any part of your experience as the "dream come true," then you are involved in…

— Chogyam Trungpa

“For twenty-five years I've been speaking and writing in defense of your right to happiness in this world, condemning your inability to…

— Wilhelm Reich

“ Once a person has been poisoned by self-deception, he can't make decisions about himself as neatly as all that," Himiko said,…

— Kenzaburō Ōe