Delusion Quotes - Page 20

• I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Atheist, Thinking, Long

  Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.307, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• What do I actually mean when I say 'delusion'? I mean the absurdity of the claim that the excessive atomic armament of both sides creates a 'balance of terror' that reduces the danger of war; that in the long run it even offers a minimum of security. ... Hence the cynical saying: He who strikes first will die second.

  Christa Wolf

  Running, War, Mean

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• Writing is the perfect balance between self-confidence and self-doubt, with a bit of self-delusion thrown in.

  Judith Kelman

  Writing, Self Confidence, Perfect

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• The fundamental delusion of human beings is the belief that we exist separately and independently from the rest of the universe.

  Reb Anderson

  Fundamentals, Belief, Humans

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• Socialists do not merely want a welfare state, they absolutely must have one. They must have a grovelling dependent class from which to obtain their daily opiate: an hallucinogenic euphoria which comes from the delusion of being superior to and more altruistic than all others. They must have 'the poor, huddled masses' in much the same manner as vampires must have the blood of their victims.

  Edward Britton

  Blood, Class, Vampire

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• Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downwards through the mud and slush of opinion and tradition, and pride and prejudice, appearance and delusion, through the alluvium which covers the globe, through poetry and philosophy and religion, through church and state, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, till we come to a hard bottom that rocks in place which we can call reality and say, "This is and no mistake.

  Henry David Thoreau

  New York, Philosophy, Mistake

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• You might be tempted to avoid the messiness of daily living for the tranquility of stillness and peacefulness. This of course would be an attachment to stillness, and like any strong attachment, it leads to delusion. It arrests development and short-circuits the cultivation of wisdom.

  Jon Kabat-Zinn

  Life, Strong, Attachment

  Jon Kabat-Zinn (2005). “Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life”, Hyperion

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• It would indeed be a great delusion, if we stated that those sports of Nature [we find] enclosed in rocks are there by chance or by some vague creative power. Ah, that would be superficial indeed! In reality, those shells, which once were alive in water and are now dead and decomposed, were made thus by time not Nature; and what we now find as very hard, figured stone, was once soft mud and which received the impression of the shape of a shell, as I have frequently demonstrated.

  Agostino Scilla

  Life, Sports, Nature

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• When the mind is kept away from its preoccupations, it becomes quiet. If you do not disturb this quiet and stay in it, you find that it is permeated with a light and a love you have never known; and yet you recognise it at once as your own nature. Once you have passed through this experience, you will never be the same man again; the unruly mind may break its peace and obliterate its vision; but it is bound to return, provided the effort is sustained; until the day when all bonds are broken, delusions and attachments end and life becomes supremely concentrated in the present.

  Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

  Spiritual, Wisdom, Love You

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• Convince a man that he is an animal, that his own dignity and selfrespect are delusions, that there is no 'beyond' to aspire to, no higher potential self to achieve, and you have a slave. Let a man know he is himself, a spiritual being, that he is capable of the power of choice and has the right to aspire to greater wisdom and you have started him up a higher road.

  L. Ron Hubbard

  Spiritual, Animal, Men

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• This is the real and urgent reason why we must prepare now to meet death wisely, to transform our karmic future, and to avoid the tragedy of falling into delusion again and again and repeating the painful round of birth and death. This life is the only time and place we can prepare in, and we can only truly prepare through spiritual practice: This is the inescapable message of the natural bardo of this life.

  Sogyal Rinpoche

  Death, Spiritual, Real

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• That the will of the people can be established by voting for democrats is, of course, a delusion. Yet when considering a non-threatening system for deciding between diverse interests, then voting, of course, can be regarded as a humane and civilized process.

  Robert Musil

  People, Voting, Democracy

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• Build your life brick upon brick,
  Live a life of truth,
  And you will look back on a life of truth.
  Live a life of fantasy,
  And you will look back on delusion.

  Ming-Dao Deng

  Motivational, Bricks, Looks

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• There are those who would love each other if once they were to speak to each other; when they spoke they would discover their souls were separated by phantoms and delusions

  Ernest Hello

  Soul, Phantoms, Speak

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• I have never made it a consideration whether the subject was popular or unpopular, but whether it was right or wrong; for that which is right will become popular, and that which is wrong, though by mistake it may obtain the cry or fashion of the day, will soon lose the power of delusion, and sink into disesteem.

  Thomas Paine

  Fashion, Mistake, May

  Thomas Paine (2015). “Common Sense, The Crisis, & Other Writings from the American Revolution: (Library of America Paperback Classic)”, p.407, Library of America

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• There exists a black kingdom which the eyes of man avoid because its landscape fails signally to flatter them. This darkness, which he imagines he can dispense with in describing the light, is error with its unknown characteristics. Error is certainty's constant companion. Error is the corollary of evidence. And anything said about truth may equally well be said about error: the delusion will be no greater.

  Louis Aragon

  Mistake, Eye, Men

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• Though many schizophrenics become curiously attached to their delusions, the fading of the nondelusional world puts them in loneliness beyond all reckoning, a fixed residence on a noxious private planet they can never leave, and where they can receive no visitors.

  Andrew Solomon

  Depression, Loneliness, Fading

  Andrew Solomon (2014). “Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity”, p.296, Simon and Schuster

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• Doubt is the big machine. It grinds up the delusions of women and men.

  Victor LaValle

  Men, Doubt, Machines

  Victor LaValle (2011). “Big Machine”, p.230, Oldcastle Books

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• Prepare yourself for the coming astral journey of death by daily riding in the balloon of God-perception. Through delusion you are perceiving yourself as a bundle of flesh and bones, which at best is a nest of troubles. Meditate unceasingly, that you may quickly behold yourself as the Infinite Essence, free from every form of misery. Cease being a prisoner of the body; using the secret key of KRIYA, learn to escape into Spirit.

  Lahiri Mahasaya

  Journey, Keys, Essence

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• If in madness of delusion, anyone shall lift his parricidal hand against this blessed union, the arms of thousands will be raised to save it, and the curse of millions will fall upon the head which may have plotted its destruction.

  Andrew Jackson

  Blessed, Fall, Hands

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• We [on the left] have to be used to being a minority -- a small minority -- for some time to come. The odd thing is that the right, even when it is in power, likes to think of itself as an embattled minority against this elite that somehow runs everything. Whereas the left, even when it has no power at all, likes to imagine it somehow represents the majority of people. These are mirror-image delusions.

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  Running, Thinking, Mirrors

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• I was naïve when I was young, I was sheltered. I had illusions about who I was going to be, delusions, and a little bit of pretentiousness. And I thought, "I'll write the guy like that. It'll allow me to make fun of everyone else if I make fun of myself."

  Greg Mottola

  Fun, Writing, Guy

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• A delusion that encourages belief where there is no evidence is asking for trouble. Disagreements between incompatible beliefs cannot be settled by reasoned argument because reasoned argument is drummed out of those trained in religion from the cradle. Instead, disagreements are settled by other means which, in extreme cases, inevitably become violent. Scientists disagree among themselves but they never fight over their disagreements. They argue about evidence or go out and seek new evidence. Much the same is true of philosophers, historians and literary critics.

  Richard Dawkins

  Mean, Fighting, Religion

  "The atheist". Interview with Gordy Slack, www.salon.com. May 1, 2005.

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• Realize that the surface personality has no interest in anything which might disturb its darling delusions.

  Vernon Howard

  Personality, Identity, Might

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• Anger is one of the most common and destructive delusions, and it afflicts our mind almost every day. To solve the problem of anger, we first need to recognize the anger within our mind, acknowledge how it harms both ourself and others, and appreciate the benefits of being patient in the face of difficulties.

  Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

  Appreciate, Mind, Faces

  Kelsang Gyatso (2001). “Transform Your Life: A Blissful Journey”, p.309, Tharpa Publications UK

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