Self Deception Quotes - Page 2

• Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning.

  Karen Horney

  Self, Deception, May

  Karen Horney (2013). “Our Inner Conflicts: A CONSTRUCTIVE THEORY OF NEUROSIS”, p.135, Routledge

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• It may be that the deep necessity of art is the examination of individual's and society's self-deception.

  Robert Motherwell

  Art, Self, Deception

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• The visionary lies to himself, the liar only to others.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Inspirational, Liars, Lying

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• Cheating in school is a form of self-deception. We go to school to learn. We cheat ourselves when we coast on the efforts and scholarship of someone else.

  James E. Faust

  Cheating, School, Self

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• If it is necessary sometimes to lie to others, it is always despicable to lie to oneself.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Lying, Sometimes, Despicable

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• Self-deception is nature; hypocrisy is art.

  Mason Cooley

  Art, Self, Hypocrisy

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• Food, clothing and shelter — these are the basic needs. Beyond that, if you want anything, it is the beginning of self-deception.

  U.G. Krishnamurti

  Self, Deception, Needs

  "Stopped in Our Tracks, Book Two: Excerpts from U.G.'s Dialogues". Book by K. Chandrasekhar, 2005.

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• 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

  Life, Strong, Believe

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• Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Deception, Investing, Deceiving

  "Culture and Value" by Ludwig Wittgenstein, translated by Peter Winch, (p. 34e), 1980.

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• How much rationality and higher protection there is in such self-deception, and how much falseness I still require in order to allow myself again and again the luxury of my sincerity.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Self, Order, Luxury

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2012). “Human, All-Too-Human: Parts One and Two”, p.8, Courier Corporation

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• Suppose we were able to share meanings freely without a compulsive urge to impose our view or conform to those of others and without distortion and self-deception. Would this not constitute a real revolution in culture.

  David Bohm

  Real, Learning, Knowledge

  David Bohm, Mark Edwards (1991). “Changing consciousness: exploring the hidden source of the social, political, and environmental crises facing our world”, Harpercollins

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• Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.

  George Orwell

  Power, Self, Deception

  George Orwell (2005). “In defence of English cooking”, Penguin Hardcover

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• He who desires anything but God deceives himself, and he who loves anything but God errs miserably.

  Philip Neri

  Love, God, Christian

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• In moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy but always against one's own body.

  George Orwell

  Fighting, Perception, Enemy

  George Orwell, A.M. Heath (2003). “Animal Farm and 1984”, p.198, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Self-deception ultimately explains Japan's plight. The Japanese have never accepted that change is in their interest - and not merely a response to U.S. criticism.

  Paul Samuelson

  Japan, Self, Hype

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• 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

  Memories, Opportunity, Self

  "In the Land of Memory" by Adam Dunn, edition.cnn.com. October 27, 2000.

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• Above all, don't lie to yourself.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Respect, Lying, Occupy Yourself

  Fyodor Dostoevsky (2017). “The Brothers Karamazov (English Russian Edition illustrated): Братья Карамазовы (англо-русская редакция иллюстрированная)”, p.96, Clap Publishing, LLC.

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• You bet I write disaster fiction. We have compiled a disastrous record on this planet, a record of stupidity and absurdity and self-abuse and self-aggrandizement and self-deception and pompousness and self-righteousness and cruelty and indifference beyond what any other species has demonstrated the capacity for, which is the capacity for all the above.

  John Irving

  Writing, Self, Stupidity

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• All deception in the course of life is indeed nothing else but a lie reduced to practice, and falsehood passing from words into things.

  Robert Southey

  Life, Lying, Practice

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• 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

  Friendship, Technology, Creating

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• As a writer, I'm more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.

  Kazuo Ishiguro

  People, Literature, Happened

  FaceBook post by Kazuo Ishiguro from Aug 07, 2014

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

  Carl Sagan

  Self, Deception, Vastness

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.158, Ballantine Books

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• Man can try to name love, showering upon it all the names at his command, and still he will involve himself in endless self deceptions. If he possesses a grain of wisdom he will lay down his arms and name the unknown by the more unknown - ignotum per ignotius - that is by the name of God.

  Carl Jung

  God, Men, Self

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• First, what does truth require? It requires us to face the facts as they are, not to involve ourselves in self-deception; to refuse to think merely in slogans. If we are to work for the future of the city, let us deal with the realities as they actually are, not as they might have been, and not as we wish they were.

  John F. Kennedy

  Truth, Reality, Thinking

  "Address at the Free University of Berlin". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. June 26, 1963.

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• Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Self, Roots, Evil

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.233, Penguin

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