Delusion Quotes - Page 32

• All science is intelligent inference; excessive literalism is delusion, not a humble bowing to evidence.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Humble, Intelligent, Statistics

  Stephen Jay Gould (1995). “Dinosaur in a haystack: reflections in natural history”, Harmony

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• Yet I pity the poor wretch, though he's my enemy. He's yoked to an evil delusion, but the same fate could be mine. I see clearly: we who live are all phantoms, fleeing shadows.

  Sophocles

  Fate, Evil, Enemy

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• With mania, is it dangerous to ride that euphoric feeling. You feel very animated and creative; I would fill journals with drawings. It feels good and you want it to last, but it can lead to being delusional. The delusions can be as real as you thinking you can fly.

  David LaChapelle

  Real, Thinking, Drawing

  "David LaChapelle’s ‘Still Life’: Celebrity Photographer On Bullying, Fame And Manic Depression". Interview with Priscilla Frank, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 26, 2012.

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• Just as we should never balance the budget on the backs of the poor, so it is an economic delusion to think you can balance it only on the wallets of the rich.

  George Osborne

  Thinking, Balance, Rich

  "George Osborne unveils employee 'shares for rights' scheme" by Patrick Wintour and Nicholas Watt, www.theguardian.com. October 8, 2012.

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• One of society's absurd delusions is that the spending of money can cure something.

  Vernon Howard

  Money, Absurd, Cures

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• Practically all writers and artists are aware of their destiny and see themselves as actors in a fateful drama. With me, nothing is momentous: obscure youth, glorious old age, fateful coincidences - nothing really matters. I have written a number of good sentences. I have kept free of delusions. I know I am going to die soon.

  Eric Hoffer

  Drama, Artist, Destiny

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• Maybe science is just magic with delusions of lack of grandeur.

  Peter David

  Magic, Grandeur

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• All over the world, particularly in the newer nations, young men are coming to power--men who are not bound by the traditions of the past--men who are not blinded by the old fears and hates and rivalries-- young men who can cast off the old slogans and delusions and suspicions.

  John F. Kennedy

  Hate, Past, Men

  Democratic National Convention Nomination Acceptance Address, delivered 15 July 1960, Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles

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• Hearing, seeing and understanding each other, humanity from one end of the earth to the other now lives simultaneously, omnipresent like a god thanks to its own creative ability. And, thanks to its victory over space and time, it would now be splendidly united for all time, if it were not confused again and again by that fatal delusion which causes humankind to keep on destroying this grandiose unity and to destroy itself with the same resources which gave it power over the elements.

  Stefan Zweig

  Confused, Space, Creative

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• Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

  Charles Mackay

  Ignorance, Crowds, Madness

  Charles Mackay (1996). “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds and ConfusiÃ3n de Confusiones”, John Wiley & Sons

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• Businessmen have a different set of delusions from politicians; and need, therefore, different handling. They are, however, much milder than politicians, at the same time allured and terrified by the glare of publicity....You could do anything you like with them, if you would treat them (even the big ones) not as wolves and tigers, but as domestic animals by nature, even though they have been badly brought up and not trained as you would wish.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Animal, Wish, Different

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• There isn't any delusion. It is absolutely clear that this body energy is a genuine phenomenon of some kind.

  Michael Crichton

  Energy, Body, Kind

  Michael Crichton (2012). “Travels”, p.382, Vintage

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• Paranoia is a state of heightened awareness. Most people are persecuted beyond their wildest delusions.

  Claude Steiner

  People, Awareness, Paranoia

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• If the prosecution of crime is to be conducted with so little regard for that protection which centuries of English law have given to the individual, we are indeed at the dawn of a new era; and much that we have deemed vital to our liberties, is a delusion.

  Learned Hand

  Law, Liberty, Littles

  "United States v. Di Re". Judicial opinion, 1947.

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• I profoundly admire Aldous Huxley, both for his philosophy and uncompromising sincerity. But I disagree with his advocacy of 'the chemical opening of doors into the Other World', and with his belief that drugs can procure 'what Catholic theologians call a gratuitous grace'. Chemically induced hallucinations, delusions and raptures may be frightening or wonderfully gratifying; in either case they are in the nature of confidence tricks played on one's own nervous system.

  Arthur Koestler

  Philosophy, Doors, Other Worlds

  Arthur Koestler (1981). “Kaleidoscope: essays from Drinkers of infinity, and The heel of Achilles and later pieces and stories”, Vintage

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• The current memoir craze has fostered the belief that confession is therapeutic, that therapy is redemptive and that redemption equals art, and it has encouraged the delusion that candor, daring and shamelessness are substitutes for craft, that the exposed life is the same thing as an examined one.

  Michiko Kakutani

  Art, Redemption, Crafts

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• If the awareness of our limitations begins to limit or to dim our value consciousness as well—as happens, for instance, in old age with regard to the values of youth—then we have already started the movement of devaluation which will end with the defamation of the world and all its values. Only a timely act of resignation can deliver us from this tendency toward self-delusion.

  Max Scheler

  Self, Age, Movement

  Max Scheler, Harold J. Bershady (1992). “On Feeling, Knowing, and Valuing: Selected Writings”, p.126, University of Chicago Press

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• 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

  Passion, Errors, Self

  Sri Aurobindo (1995). “Essays on the Gita”, p.107, Lotus Press

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• To ignore the religious nature of the terrorist threat is to succumb to politically correct delusion.

  Ruth Marcus

  Religious, Religion, Terrorism

  "Islamic radicalism: The questions that Rep. Peter King is right to ask". www.washingtonpost.com. March 9, 2011.

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• We swim, day by day, on a river of delusions, and are effectually amused with houses and towns in the air, of which the men aboutus are dupes. But life is a sincerity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Life, Men, Air

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1850). “Representative Men: Seven Lectures”, p.14

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• The one prudence in life is concentration; the one evil is dissipation: and it makes no difference whether our dissipations are coarse or fine; property and its cares, friends and a social habit, or politics, or music, or feasting. Everything is good which takes away one plaything and delusion more, and drives us home to add one stroke of faithful work.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Work, Home, Differences

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.353

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• The discussion which was made by Luther, Melancthon, and the other persons who preceded the Reformation, opened the eyes or the public; and they got rid of the delusions which had been spread by the Pope of Rome, and emancipated mankind from the spiritual tyranny they were under, and brought about the establishment of that religion which we now enjoy in this country.

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Spiritual, Country, Eye

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• Life is the path. Can the path be seen? Observe the path and you are far from it. Without observation how can one know they are on the path? The path cannot be seen, nor can it not be unseen. Perception is delusion; abstraction is nonsensical. Your path is freedom. Name it and it vanishes.

  Eric S. Nylund

  Names, Perception, Unseen

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• Live on berries in a hollowed-out comet lit by artificial suns long enough, and you start to have delusions about achieving enlightenment.

  Hannu Rajaniemi

  Long, Enlightenment, Sun

  Hannu Rajaniemi (2012). “The Fractal Prince”, p.17, Hachette UK

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• Well, delusions are a wonderful thing, and they keep you company, too.

  Marni Jackson

  Wonderful, Wells, Company

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