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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• 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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• The human mind has an infinite capacity for self-deception.

  Gertrude Atherton

  Self, Deception, Mind

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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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• What destroys us most effectively is not a malign fate but our own capacity for self-deception and for degrading our own best self.

  George Eliot

  Fate, Self, Deception

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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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• The ingenuity of self-deception is inexhaustible.

  Hannah More

  Self, Deception, Ingenuity

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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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• If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed. Harmed is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Truth, Ignorance, Thinking

  "Meditations". Book by Marcus Aurelius (Book VI, Chapter 21), circa 170.

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• No satisfaction based upon self-deception is solid.

  Bertrand Russell

  Self, Deception, Satisfaction

  Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.72, Lulu Press, Inc

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• No one was ever injured by the truth; but he who persists in self-deception and ignorance is injured.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Ignorance, Self, Deception

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• Our capacity for self-deception has no known limits

  Michael Novak

  Self, Deception, Limits

  Michael Novak (2011). “Ascent of the Mountain, Flight of the Dove: An Invitation to Religious Studies (Third Revised Edition)”, p.50, Transaction Publishers

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• We are inconsolable at being deceived by our enemies and being betrayed by our friends, yet we are often content in be being treated like that by our own selves.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Self, Deception, Enemy

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• You can fool yourself, you know. You'd think it's impossible, but it turns out it's the easiest thing of all.

  Jodi Picoult

  Thinking, Fool, Impossible

  Jodi Picoult (2007). “Vanishing acts”, p.156, Simon and Schuster

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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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• 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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• 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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