Delusion Quotes - Page 5

• The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

  Edmund Burke

  Wisdom, Freedom, Giving Up

  Speech at County Meeting of Buckinghamshire, 1784

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• Human beings have an almost unlimited capacity for self-delusion. We can justify any amount of sadness if it fits our own particular standard of reality.

  John Twelve Hawks

  Sadness, Reality, Self

  "The Traveler". Book by John Twelve Hawks, 2005.

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• The atheist view is correspondingly life-affirming and life-enhancing, while at the same time never being tainted with self-delusion, wishful thinking, or the whingeing self-pity of those who feel that life owes them something.

  Richard Dawkins

  Atheist, Thinking, Self

  Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.405, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The disappointment of manhood succeeds the delusion of youth.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Time, Disappointment, Failure

  Benjamin Disraeli (2010). “Vivian Grey”, p.618, BoD – Books on Demand

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• It quite often happens that the old man is subject to the delusion of a great moral renewal and rebirth, and from this experience he passes judgments on the work and course of his life, as if he had only now become clear-sighted; and yet the inspiration behind this feeling of well-being and these confident judgements is not wisdom, but weariness .

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Inspiration, Men, Feelings

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• The sense that my world is stable and stationary, that change will never come and that all will go on continuously as it is, is the nature of all delusion.

  Brenda Shoshanna

  Change, Nature, Goes On

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• As for the various religions, there's no doubt that they are very meaningful to adherents, and allow them to delude themselves into thinking there is some meaning to their lives beyond what we agree is the case. I'd never try to talk them out of the delusions, which are necessary for them to live a life that makes some sense to them. These beliefs can provide a framework for deeds that are noble or savage, and anywhere in between, and there's every reason to focus attention on the deeds and the background for them, to the extent that we can grasp it.

  Noam Chomsky

  Meaningful, Thinking, Focus

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• A form of self-delusion.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Education, Self, Form

  Elbert Hubbard, Bert Hubbard (1923). “Selected writings of Elbert Hubbard: his mintage of wisdom, coined from a life of love, laughter and work”

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• Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

  Albert Einstein

  God, Religious, Atheist

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.328, Princeton University Press

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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 a common delusion that you make things better by talking about them.

  Rose Macaulay

  Philosophy, Women, Talking

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• Nothing goes on forever. I think that's one of the illusions of life. When I talk about my life being an extension of my dreams and fantasies, there's a tendency to think of them as immature. I live in a mature world. The majority of the people in this society live with delusions and illusions much more irrational and hurtful than mine. They deal with mortality, with fantasies relating to heaven and hell, and they don't really deal with their problems at all.

  Hugh Hefner

  Dream, Thinking, People

  "Media: Rabbit is Rich". Interview with Jonathan Roberts, www.interviewmagazine.com. December, 1985.

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• The illusion that we are separate from one another is an optical delusion of our consciousness.

  Albert Einstein

  Consciousness, Illusion

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• God could easily appear and clear up the global religious chaos and confusion. But a delusion can never appear in reality.

  C. J. Anderson

  Religious, Reality, Confusion

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• There are a lot of people who are doing wonderful things, quietly, with no motive of greed, or hostility toward other people, or delusions of superiority.

  Charles Kuralt

  People, Greed, Literature

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• At every sunrise I renounce the doubts of night and greet the new
  day of a most precious delusion.

  Czeslaw Milosz

  Night, New Day, Doubt

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• The ignorant mind, with its infinite afflictions, passions, and evils, is rooted in the three poisons. Greed, anger, and delusion.

  Bodhidharma

  Anger, Passion, Ignorant Masses

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• We chart delusions through collective agreement.

  Siri Hustvedt

  Agreement, Collectives

  Siri Hustvedt (2011). “The Summer Without Men: A Novel”, p.87, Macmillan

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• Delusions are states of mind which, when they arise within our mental continuum, leave us disturbed, confused and unhappy. Therefore, those states of mind which delude or afflict us are called 'delusions.'

  Dalai Lama

  Karma, Confused, Mind

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• The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Life, Religious, Atheist

  George Bernard Shaw (1993). “The Complete Prefaces: 1914-1929”, Viking Adult

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• Truth is always a delusion.

  Friedrich Durrenmatt

  Literature, Truth Is

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• The capacity for people to kid themselves is huge. Living on illusions or delusions, and the re-establishing of these illusions or delusions requires a big effort to keep them from being seen through. But a very old idea is at work behind our current state of affairs: enantiodromia, or the Greek notion of things turning into their opposite.

  James Hillman

  Kids, Opposites, Ideas

  "America and the Shift in Ages: An Interview with Jungian James Hillman". Interview With Pythia Peay, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 26, 2011.

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• Never be frightened! Be fearless! There is no room for fear. Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is adharma and fear is disloyalty. All delusions emanate from this evil called fear.

  Asaram

  Courage, Evil, Fearless

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• Should this my firm persuasion of the soul's immortality prove to be a mere delusion, it is at least a pleasing delusion, and I will cherish it to my last breath.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Time, Soul, Lasts

  Marcus Tullius Cicero (1839). “The Orations”, p.261

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• To enter by reason means to realize the essence through instruction and to believe that all living things share the same true nature, which isn't apparent because it's shrouded by sensation and delusion.

  Bodhidharma

  Believe, Mean, Essence

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.3, Macmillan

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