Ancestry Quote by Upton Sinclair

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

— William Godwin

What is the most fascinating kind of self-deception to me, and a kind that isn't necessarily unhealthy, is what Friedrich Nietzsche called "strategic self-deception."…

— Clancy Martin

Most of our platitudes notwithstanding, self-deception remains the most difficult deception. The tricks that work on others count for nothing in that very well-lit…

— Joan Didion

Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal. Drugs, alcohol, or lies. Unable to withdraw into…

— Jean Cocteau

Self-indulgence takes many forms. A man may be self-indulgent in speech, in touch, in sight. From self-indulgence a man comes to idle speech and…

— Dorotheus of Gaza

“Because the exposure of self to self lies at the heart of neurotic shame, escape from the self is necessary. The escape from self…

— John Bradshaw

You know, your species [humans] has the most amazing capacity for self-deception, matched only by its ingenuity in trying to destroy itself.

— Ben Aaronovitch

“A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and…

— Dave Donovan

“a process of self-deception to satisfy and summarily persuade yourself of righteousness. What one among us has any excuse but self-love? We do not…

— Austin Osman, Spare

The myth of the self-made man, has to be profoundly hypocritical: it is the self-serving demonstration that a lie is the truth

— Che Guevara

The fundamental factor of self-deception is this constant desire to be something in this world and in the world hereafter.

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

“I suspect that self-deception is similar to its cousins, overconfidence and optimism, and as with these other biases, it has both benefits and disadvantages.…

— Dan Ariely