“If you look at your average contemporary person, the potential for tragedy is immense. The people and things we love and value are strewn across the globe. Any number of health disasters can befall you or them. The truth is depressing. We are going to die, most likely after illness; all our friends will likewise die; we are tiny insignificant dots on a tiny planet. Perhaps with the advent of broad intelligence and foresight comes the need for confabulation and self-deception to keep depression and its consequent lethargy at bay. There needs to be a basic denial of our finitude and insignificance in the larger scene. It takes a certain amount of chutzpah just to get out of bed in the morning.”
Quote by William Hirstein
Work
Brain Fiction: Self-Deception and the Riddle of Confabulation
Browse quotes and source details for this work. more
Author
You May Also Like
Source: Преступление и наказание
“The notion of the perfect time is more than myth. It's the ultimate self-delusion.”
Source: Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments on the Road
“What we believe to be the motives of our conduct are usually just the pretexts for it.”
“When my wits fail me, I resort to self-deception.”
Source: Brother Odd
Source: Ogni storia è una storia d'amore
Source: Adam Bede
Source: Forever Odd
Source: Modern King James Version of the Holy Bible