Self Deception Quotes

• It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Life, Beauty, Beautiful

  'The Kreutzer Sonata' 5 (translated by Maude)

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• Of all forms of deception self-deception is the most deadly, and of all deceived persons the self-deceived are the least likely to discover the fraud.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Self, Deception, Form

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• Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Love, Life, Respect

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The worst of all deceptions is self-deception.

  Plato

  Fear, Self, Deception

  Plato, Harold North Fowler (1926). “Plato: with an English translation”

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• We lie best when we lie to ourselves.

  Stephen King

  Liars, Lying, Being Lied

  Stephen King (2016). “It: A Novel”, p.445, Simon and Schuster

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  The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Art

  Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.444, GENERAL PRESS

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• Self-deception can be more comforting than self-knowledge.
  We like to fool ourselves.

  Russ Roberts

  Self, Comforting, Deception

  Russ Roberts (2014). “How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness”, p.31, Penguin

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• Avoidance of self deception is a matter of integrity not comfort.

  Orrin Woodward

  Integrity, Self, Deception

  Twitter post from Apr 05, 2017

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• When we successfully deceive others, they are not aware of it; the same is true with self-deception.

  Mardy Grothe

  Self, Deception, Deceiving

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• Narcissism and self-deception are survival mechanisms without which many of us might just jump off a bridge.

  Todd Solondz

  Self, Bridges, Hype

  "Sanity and Solitude: Cogent Ramblings of a Lone Aesthetic". Book by Bob Spencer, p. 81, 2012.

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• There are genuine mysteries in the world that mark the limits of human knowing and thinking. Wisdom is fortified, not destroyed, by understanding its limitations. Ignorance does not make a fool as surely as self-deception.

  Mortimer Adler

  Wisdom, Ignorance, Thinking

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• Self-deception helps us deceive.

  David Livingstone

  Self, Deception, Helping

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• Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.

  Bill Gates

  Inspirational, Success, Teacher

  Bill Gates, Nathan Myhrvold, Peter Rinearson (1996). “The Road Ahead”, Wheeler Pub Incorporated

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• It is self-love and its offspring self-deception, which shut the gates of heaven, and lead men, as if in a delicious dream, to hell.

  Christian Scriver

  Dream, Men, Self

  Christian Scriver (1857). “Gotthold's Emblems: or Invisible things understood by things that are made. Tr. by R. Menzies”, p.128

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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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• Only one deception is possible in the infinite sense, self-deception.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Self, Deception, Infinite

  "Works of Love". Book by Soren Kierkegaard, 1847.

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

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Inspirational, Liars, Lying

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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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• 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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• 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

  Encouragement, Pain, Believe

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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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