Man's chief delusion is his conviction that there are causes other than his own state of consciousness. — Neville Goddard
Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning. — Karen Horney
People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception. — James A. Baldwin
Delusions of grandeur make me feel a lot better about myself. — Jane Wagner
The fundamental factor of self-deception is this constant desire to be something in this world and in the world hereafter. — Jiddu Krishnamurti
When one has an image about oneself one is surely insane, one lives in a world of illusion. — Jiddu Krishnamurti
I think it's perfectly acceptable and rather admirable to be moderately delusional — Matthew Gray Gubler
Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self; for what we wish, that we readily believe; but such expectations are often inconsistent with the real state of things. — Demosthenes
Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth. — Ludwig Borne
Narcissism and self-deception are survival mechanisms without which many of us might just jump off a bridge. — Todd Solondz
Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves. — Thomas Merton
Short Self Delusion Quotes
Man has the supreme knack of deceiving himself; the Englishman is supremest among men. — Mahatma Gandhi
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true. — Demosthenes
The worst of all deceptions is self-deception. — Saul Bellow
We lie best when we lie to ourselves. — Stephen King
The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others. — Friedrich Nietzsche
Confidence is 10 percent hard work and 90 percent delusion. — Tina Fey
A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep. — Saul Bellow
Maturity is learning to walk away from people and situation that threaten your peace of mind, self respect, values, morals and self worth.
Self-delusion Quotes
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
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. — Albert Einstein
...the self-satisfied dogmatism with which mankind at each period of its history cherishes the delusion of the finality of existing modes of knowledge. — Alfred North Whitehead
We are what we believe we are.
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. — Voltaire
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. — Albert Einstein
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. — Albert Einstein
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. — Tara Brach
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. — Marilyn French
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. — Calvin Coolidge
I seek the truth...it is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance that does harm. — Marcus Aurelius
Self Deception Quotes
If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance. — Marcus Aurelius
People always have been and they always will be stupid victims of deceit and self-deception in politics. — Vladimir Lenin
It is the cult of self that is killing the United States. This cult has within it the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance ; a need for constant stimulation; a penchant for lying, deception and manipulation; and the incapacity for remorse or guilt. — Chris Hedges
It's easy to be in motion and convince yourself that you're making progress. — James Clear
All violence is the result of people tricking themselves into believing that their pain derives from other people and that consequently those people deserve to be punished. — Marshall B. Rosenberg
They are most cheated who cheat themselves. — Danish Proverbs
We expect more from technology and less from each other. We create technology to provide the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. — Sherry Turkle
I will not allow yesterday's success to lull me into today's complacency, for this is the great foundation of failure. — Og Mandino
I'm interested in memory because it's a filter through which we see our lives, and because it's foggy and obscure, the opportunities for self-deception are there. In the end, as a writer, I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened. — Kazuo Ishiguro
It is a self-deception of philosophers and moralists to imagine that they escape decadence by opposing it. That is beyond their will; and, however little they acknowledge it, one later discovers that they were among the most powerful promoters of decadence. — Friedrich Nietzsche
Delusion Quotes
As gold purified in a furnace loses its impurities and achieves its own true nature, the mind gets rid of the impurities of the attributes of delusion, attachment and purity through meditation and attains Reality. — Adi Shankara
If we once get above our Bibles and cease making the written Word of God our sole rule both as to faith and practice, we shall soon lie open to all manner of delusion and be in great danger of making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. — George Whitefield
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. — Carl Sagan
We're all mad, the whole damned race. We're wrapped in illusions, delusions, confusions about the penetrability of partitions, we're all mad and in solitary confinement. — William Golding
The greatest obstacle to enlightenment is getting past your delusion that you are not already enlightened. — Ramana Maharshi
Such delusions of grandeur to think that a God with a hundred billion galaxies on his mind would give a tuppenny damn who you sleep with, or indeed whether you believe in him. — Richard Dawkins
The belief that one's own view of reality is the only reality is the most dangerous of all delusions. — Paul Watzlawick
We are part of the whole which we call the universe, but it is an optical delusion of our mind that we think we are separate. This separateness is like a prison for us. Our job is to widen the circle of our compassion so we feel connected with all people and situations. — Albert Einstein
A person isn't considered insane if there are a number of people who believe the same way. Insanity isn't supposed to be a communicable disease. If one other person starts to believe him, or maybe two or three, then it's a religion. — Robert M. Pirsig
Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion. — Jim Rohn
God Delusion Quotes
Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish. Let us understand what our own selfish genes are up to, because we may then at least have the chance to upset their designs, something that no other species has ever aspired to do. — Richard Dawkins
Let children learn about different faiths, let them notice their incompatibility, and let them draw their own conclusions about the consequences of that incompatibility. As for whether they are ‘valid,’ let them make up their own minds when they are old enough to do so. — Richard Dawkins
We're under some gross misconception that we're a good species, going somewhere important, and that at the last minute we'll correct our errors and God will smile on us. It's delusion. — Farley Mowat
Be open minded, but not so open minded that your brains fall out. — Groucho Marx
Pantheism is sexed-up atheism. Deism is watered-down theism. — Richard Dawkins
Faith can be very very dangerous, and deliberately to implant it into the vulnerable mind of an innocent child is a grievous wrong. — Richard Dawkins
The Christian god is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust. — Thomas Jefferson
Faith is an evil precisely because it requires no justification and brooks no argument. — Richard Dawkins
Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God — Thomas Jefferson
Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky. — George Carlin
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. — Jimmy Carter
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. — Khaled Hosseini
Love is the self-delusion we manufacture to justify the trouble we take to have sex. — Daniel S. Greenberg
History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation. — Julian Barnes
The delusions of self-love cannot be prevented, but intellectual misconceptions as to the means of achieving success may be corrected. — George Henry Lewes
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. — Jim Rohn
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. — Carl Sagan
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. — James Hillman
The worst deluded are the self-deluded. — Christian Nestell Bovee
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. — Richard Dawkins
A lover is never a completely self-reliant person viewing the world through his own eyes, but a hostage to a certain delusion. — Alexander Theroux
Men, unlike mockingbirds, have the capacity for systematic self-delusion. We echo each other with equal precision, equal eloquence, equal assurance. — Robert Ardrey
A woman wishes to mother a man simply because she sees into his helplessness, his need of an amiable environment, his touching self-delusion. — H. L. Mencken
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 — John Quincy Adams
The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion - in the long run, these are the only people who count. — Robert A. Heinlein
It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion — Calvin Coolidge
I suppose our capacity for self-delusion is boundless. — John Steinbeck
Writing is the perfect balance between self-confidence and self-doubt, with a bit of self-delusion thrown in. — Judith Kelman
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. — Edwin Percy Whipple
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. — Frederick Lenz
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. — Sri Aurobindo
The human capacity for self-delusion is boundless, and the effects of belief are overpowering. — Michael Shermer
Everyone, including skeptics, will generate delusions that match their views. That is how a normal and healthy brain works. Skeptics are not exempt from self-delusion. — Scott Adams
Worship means reverence and humility. It means revering your real self and humbling delusions. If you can wipe out evil desires and harbor good thoughts, even if nothing shows, it's worship. Such form is its real form. — Bodhidharma
We all need a bit of self-delusion. It gets us over the difficult spots. — John Ralston Saul
There is no self-delusion more fatal than that which makes the conscience dreamy with the anodyne of lofty sentiments, while the life is groveling and sensual. — James Russell Lowell
Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well. The extremely tiny fraction who think regularly, accurately, creatively, and without self-delusion — Robert A. Heinlein
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! — Daniel Day-Lewis
Religious fundamentalism, magical thinking and self-delusion, have been justifications for some of the most horrific atrocities in human history. — Bryant H. McGill
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. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. — Carl Sagan
In Conclusion
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