Since I no longer expect anything from mankind except madness, meanness, and mendacity; egotism, cowardice, and self-delusion, I have stopped being a misanthrope.
— Irving Layton
Belligerent Self Delusion quotations
We experience ourselves our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
...the self-satisfied dogmatism with which mankind at each period of its history cherishes the delusion of the finality of existing modes of knowledge.
The human brain is a complex organ with the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.
A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe;
a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and his feelings as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.
There's always an element of self delusion among people who believe they ought to be President. There's an underestimation of your opponent and an overestimation of your own abilities. This is compatible with being rich and powerful, the idea that we were blessed by God because we deserve to be blessed.
A person experiences life as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness.
I suppose I have a highly developed capacity for self-delusion, so it's no problem for me to believe that I'm somebody else.
The spiritual path is not a solo endeavor.
In fact, the very notion of a self who is trying to free her/ himself is a delusion. We are in it together and the company of spiritual friends helps us realize our interconnectedness.
Well, love is insanity. The ancient Greeks knew that. It is the taking over of a rational and lucid mind by delusion and self-destruction. You lose yourself, you have no power over yourself, you can't even think straight.
It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion.
They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness.
I seek the truth...it is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance that does harm.
I have a theory about marriage, Monsieur Boustouler.
And it’s that nearly always you will know within two weeks if it’s going to work. It’s astonishing how many people remain shackled for years, decades even, in a protracted and mutual state of self-delusion and false hope when in fact they had their answer in those first two weeks.
Love is the self-delusion we manufacture to justify the trouble we take to have sex.
History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.
The delusions of self-love cannot be prevented, but intellectual misconceptions as to the means of achieving success may be corrected.
We cannot move casually into a better future.
We cannot casually pursue the goal we have set for ourselves. A goal that is casually pursued is not a goal; at best it is a wish, and wishes are little more than self-delusion.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance , the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe are challenged by this point of pale light.
Worship means reverence and humility it means revering your real self and humbling delusions.
The self divided is precisely where the self is authentically located.
. . We all have identity crises because a single identity is a delusion of the monotheistic mind. . . Authenticity is in the illusion, playing it, seeing through it from within as we play it, like an actor who sees through his mask and can only see in this way.
The worst deluded are the self-deluded.
The atheist view is correspondingly life-affirming and life-enhancing, while at the same time never being tainted with self-delusion, wishful thinking, or the whingeing self-pity of those who feel that life owes them something.
A lover is never a completely self-reliant person viewing the world through his own eyes, but a hostage to a certain delusion.
Men, unlike mockingbirds, have the capacity for systematic self-delusion.
We echo each other with equal precision, equal eloquence, equal assurance.
A woman wishes to mother a man simply because she sees into his helplessness, his need of an amiable environment, his touching self-delusion.
However tiresome to others, the most indefatigable orator is never tedious to himself. The sound of his own voice never loses its harmony to his own ear; and among the delusions, which self-love is ever assiduous in attempting to pass upon virtue, he fancies himself to be sounding the sweetest tones
The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion - in the long run, these are the only people who count.
It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion
A form of self-delusion.
History is the lies of the victors.
I suppose our capacity for self-delusion is boundless.
Writing is the perfect balance between self-confidence and self-doubt, with a bit of self-delusion thrown in.
Men educate each other in reason by contact or collision, and keep each other sane by the very conflict of their separate hobbies. Society as a whole is the deadly enemy of the particular crotchet of each, and solitude is almost the only condition in which the acorn of conceit can grow to the oak of perfect self-delusion.
This solidity is not true. The apparent solidity is the delusion of the senses and of the self. Everything is made up of infinite, intelligent light.
Not complete inaction, which is an error, a confusion, a self-delusion, an impossibility, but action full and free done without subjection to sense and passion, desireless and unattached works, are the first secret of perfection.
