Self-Deceit Quotes

The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

We deceive and flatter no one by such delicate artificies as we do our own selves.

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

Nothing fools you better than the lie you tell yourself.

When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.

We should not be upset that others hide the truth from us, when we hide it so often from ourselves

It's very difficult to escape your background. You know, I don't think it's necessary to even try to escape it. More and more, I start to think that it's necessary to see exactly what it is that you inherited on both ends of the stick: your timidity, your courage, your self-deceit, and your honesty - and all the rest of it.

The fool tries to adjust the truth so he does not have to adjust to it.

What do we any of us have but our illusions? And what do we ask of others but that we be allowed to keep them?

I said, "I do not fear those pants with nobody inside them." I said, and said, and said those words. I said them but I lied them.

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

Sometimes you don't want the truth. Sometimes you're like, "Oh just tell me the good answer. I don't want the truth."

How do men feel whose whole lives (and many men's lives are) are lies, schemes, and subterfuges? What sort of company do they keep when they are alone? Daily in life I watch men whose every smile is an artifice, and every wink is an hypocrisy. Doth such a fellow where a mask in his own privacy, and to his own conscience?

Americans are not world class liars. We are not as good as other nations at it. Our specialty is deceiving ourselves.

Flattery is a counterfeit money which, but for vanity, would have no circulation.

Vengeful as nature herself, she loves her children only in order to devour them better and if she herself rips her own veils of self-deceit, Mother perceives in herself untold abysses of cruelty as subtle as it is refined.

A lover's a liar, To himself he lies, The truthful are loveless, Like oysters their eyes!

Just as surely as distress must follow self-deceit, healing must follow self-honesty.

When you say 'Yes' or promise something, you can very easily deceive yourself and others also, as if you had already done what you promised. It is easy to think that by making a promise you have at least done part of what you promised to do, as if the promise itself were something of value. Not at all! In fact, when you do not do what you promise, it is a long way back to the truth.

It is vain to find fault with those arts of deceiving wherein men find pleasure to be deceived.

But there are victories far worse than defeats; and to overcome an angel too gentle to put out all his strength, and ride away in triumph on the back of a devil, is one of the poorest.

When you dishonor the the utter glory and majesty of black people, you lie. Your heart lies to you and you let it

Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?

For, if we take an examination of what is generally understood by happiness, as it has respect either to the understanding or the senses, we shall find all its properties and adjuncts will herd under this short definition: that it is a perpetual possession of being well deceived.