Delusion Quotes - Page 26

• 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

  Self, Sensual, Life Is

  James Russell Lowell (1872). “Among my Books: Contents: Dryden. Witchcraft. Shakespeare once more. New England two centuries ago. Lessing. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists”, p.363

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• When you are filled with soul energy you become magnetic." 11 Teachings to help on the journey to Soul Realization: (1) Practive humility; (2) Give up pride and self-delusion; (3) Practice loving kindness; (4) Give up anger, hatred and vindictiveness; (5) Practice generosity; (6) Avoid greed and stealing in its different aspects; (7) Practice honesty; (8) Avoid maliciousness and exploiting lies; (9)Practice moderation; (10) Avoid excessiveness; (11) Do not allow yourself to be enslaved by your lower nature

  Choa Kok Sui

  Kindness, Giving Up, Honesty

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• You are the Children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. You divinities on earth. Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; you are not matter, you are not bodies; matter is your servant,not you the servant of matter.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Children, Sheep, Perfect

  Swami Vivekananda (2006). “Pathways to Joy: The Master Vivekananda on the Four Yoga Paths to God”, p.39, New World Library

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• Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

  John Stuart Mill

  Men, Good Man, Needs

  "On Education" (1867)

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• 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

  Jobs, Thinking, Compassion

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• 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

  Self, Views, Healthy

  Scott Adams (2004). “God's Debris: A Thought Experiment”, p.73, Andrews McMeel Publishing

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• 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

  Moving, Self, Goal

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• Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earth quake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they will somehow be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Religious, War, Believe

  Ezra Taft Benson (1988). “The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson”, Bookcraft Pubs

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• Only in the last moment in history has the delusion arisen that people can flourish apart from the rest of the living world.

  E. O. Wilson

  People, World, Lasts

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• Take a good long look at human beings in their actual practices and motives; bring the utmost psychological and bio-economic factors to bear on making sense of their illusions and delusions. What then would the truth have to be, such that such human beings are FIT TO KNOW IT at all, even provisionally or tentatively?

  Kenny Smith

  Fitness, Truth, Practice

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• Both in the lower and the middle classes the wiseacres urge young men 'to think it over' before taking the decisive step. Thus they foster the delusion that the choice of a wife or husband may be governed by a certain number of accurately weighable pros and cons. This is a crude delusion on the part of common sense.

  Denis de Rougemont

  Marriage, Husband, Men

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• When people start using science to argue for their specific beliefs and delusions, to try to claim that they're supported by science, then scientists at least have to speak up and say, You re welcome to your delusions, but don't say that they're supported by science.

  Victor J. Stenger

  People, Religion, Atheism

  Interview with Cliff Walker, www.tapatalk.com. November 6, 1999.

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• The greatest obstacle to enlightenment is getting past your delusion that you are not already enlightened.

  Ramana Maharshi

  Past, Enlightenment, Obstacles

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• Our whole system of banks is a violation of every honest principle of banks. There is no honest bank but a bank of deposit. A bank that issues paper at interest is a pickpocket or a robber. But the delusion will have its course. ... An aristocracy is growing out of them that will be as fatal as the feudal barons if unchecked in time.

  John Adams

  Issues, Principles, Aristocracy

  John Adams, Benjamin Rush (1892). “Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle... Series A-[B]”

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• To eat in a monastery refectory is an exercise in humility; daily, one is reminded to put communal necessity before individual preference. While consumer culture speaks only to preferences, treating even whims as needs to be granted (and the sooner the better), monastics sense that this pandering to delusions of self-importance weakens the true self, and diminishes our ability to distinguish desires from needs. It's a price they're not willing to pay.

  Kathleen Norris

  Humility, Exercise, Self

  Kathleen Norris (1997). “The Cloister Walk”, p.25, Penguin

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• Perhaps one day we will do “everything that we can to protect our people and the timeless values that we stand for.” But today, we won’t even honestly describe the motivations of our enemies. And in the act of lying to ourselves, we continue to pay lip service to the very delusions that empower them.

  Sam Harris

  Motivation, Lying, People

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• I used to think I was a singer; I had my own delusions about it.

  Randy Jackson

  Thinking, Singers, Used

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• History is the most dangerous product which the chemistry of the mind has concocted. Its properties are well known. It produces dreams and drunkenness. It fills people with false memories, exaggerates their reactions, exacerbates old grievances, torments them in their repose, and encourages either a delirium of grandeur or a delusion of persecution. It makes whole nations bitter, arrogant, insufferable and vainglorious.

  Paul Valery

  Dream, Memories, People

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• Men who allow their love of power to give them a distorted view of the world are to be found in every asylum: one man will think he is the Governor of the Bank of England, another will think he is the King, and yet another will think he is God. Highly similar delusions, if expressed by educated men in obscure language, lead to professorships of philosophy; and if expressed by emotional men in eloquent language, lead to dictatorships.

  Bertrand Russell

  Kings, Philosophy, Men

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Power: A New Social Analysis”, p.220, Routledge

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• Authority never matches responsibility. That's one of the great myths and delusions of all times. Winning managers and individual performers at all levels know that effectiveness means building your own network and creating your own authority. Those who succeed always reach far beyond formal deputation, take initiatives, and take the heat when things go awry. That's true in the military in times of war, true for 200 person manufacturing firms, and true at giant automakers or software companies.

  Tom Peters

  Military, War, Mean

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• The believing mind is externally impervious to evidence. The most that can be accomplished with it is to induce it to substitute one delusion for another. It rejects all overt evidence as wicked.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Mind, Wicked

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  It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.

  Thomas Paine

  Men, Errors, Duty

  Thomas Paine (2015). “The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies”, p.292, Ravenio Books

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• Once, in a dry season, I wrote in large letters across two pages of a notebook that innocence ends when one is stripped of the delusion that one likes oneself. Although now, some years later, I marvel that a mind on the outs with itself should have nonetheless made painstaking record of its every tremor, I recall with embarrassing clarity the flavor of those particular ashes. It was a matter of misplaced self-respect.

  Joan Didion

  Notebook, Self, Should Have

  Joan Didion (2006). “We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction”, Everyman's Library

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• Paranoia is the delusion that your enemies are organized.

  Arthur D. Hlavaty

  Enemy, Paranoia, Organized

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• The first-person viewpoint is more enjoyable to write, because it lets me meander more freely, and it can reveal more of the character's self-delusions. Really all the advantages are with first-person, so I'm sorry I don't get to pick and choose.

  Anne Tyler

  Sorry, Character, Writing

  Source: www.barnesandnoble.com

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