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Delusion Quotes

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Delusion Quotes

“The world, viewed philosophically, remains a series of slave camps, where citizens – tax livestock – labor under the chains of illusion in the service of their masters.”

StatesPhilosophyGovernmentReligionEvilPoliticsNationsFreedomLibertyKnowledgeDemocracySelf EsteemLibertarianSocialismCommunismPatriotismNationalismDelusionAnarchyFascismSelf KnowledgeRationalityTaxationTheftMafiaSuperstitionCollectivismPsychopathStatismVoluntaryismNazisAncapAnarcho CapitalismCountries
Author:Stefan Molyneux
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“He sank back into his black-and-white world, his immobile world of inanimate drawings that had been granted the secret of motion, his death-world with its hidden gift of life. But that life was a deeply ambiguous life, a conjurer's trick, a crafty illusion based on an accidental property of the retina, which retained an image for a fraction of a second after the image was no longer present. On this frail fact was erected the entire structure of the cinema, that colossal confidence game. The animated cartoon was a far more honest expression of the cinematic illusion than the so-called realistic film, because the cartoon reveled in its own illusory nature, exulted in the impossible--indeed it claimed the impossible as its own, exalted it as its own highest end, found in impossibility, in the negation of the actual, its profoundest reason for being. The animated cartoon was nothing but the poetry of the impossible--therein lay its exhilaration and its secret melancholy. For this willful violation of the actual, while it was an intoxicating release from the constriction of things, was at the same time nothing but a delusion, an attempt to outwit mortality. As such it was doomed to failure. And yet it was desperately important to smash through the constriction of the actual, to unhinge the universe and let the impossible stream in, because otherwise--well, otherwise the world was nothing but an editorial cartoon.”

WorldLifeImportantReasonDeathPoetryUniverseBlackNatureWhiteSecretImpossibleHonestHonestyExpressionFailureConfidenceIllusionImportanceStructurePropertyGiftReleaseCinemaDelusionMelancholyMortalityRealisticBlack And WhitePresentRealismDoomedCartoonDesperationBeingDoomViolationAnimatedGameAmbiguousFrailFrailtyImageIllusoryHiddenMotionTrickDrawSinkWillfulIntoxicatingAccidentalDrawingsOutwitInanimateFractionImmobileConstrictionDesperatelyDeath World
Book:Little Kingdoms
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“Unfathomable. Fathoms. I wonder is that the difficulty, that my memories and my imaginings are lying deeply in the same place? Or one on top of the other like layers of shells and sand in a piece of limestone, so that they have become the same element, and I cannot distinguish one from the other with any ease, unless it is from close, close looking? Which is why I am so afraid to speak to Dr. Grene, lest I give him only imaginings. Imaginings. A nice sort of a word for catastrophe and delusion.”

WordsMemoryDelusionSimileSebastian BarryThe Secret ScriptureUnreliable NarratorImaginings
Book:The Secret Scripture
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“A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying — to others and to yourself.”

PsychologySelf EsteemHonestyIntegrityUnconsciousDelusionSelf KnowledgeSubconscious
Author:Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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“Words bend our thinking to infinite paths of self-delusion, and the fact that we spend most of our mental lives in brain mansions built of words means that we lack the objectivity necessary to see the terrible distortion of reality which language brings. Example: the Chinese pictogram for ‘integrity’ is a two-part symbol of a man literally standing next to his word. So far, so good. But what does the Late English word ‘honesty’ mean? Or ‘Motherland’? Or ‘progress’? Or ‘democracy’? Or ‘beauty’? But even in our self-deception, we become gods.”

LanguageHonestyMeaningDelusion
Book:Hyperion
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“The first time he had taken the massa to one of these "high-falutin' to-dos," as Bell called them, Kunta had been all but overwhelmed by conflicting emotions: awe, indignation, envy, contempt, fascination, revulsion—but most of all a deep loneliness and melancholy from which it took him almost a week to recover. He couldn't believe that such incredible wealth actually existed, that people really lived that way. It took him a long time, and a great many more parties, to realize that they didn't live that way, that it was all strangely unreal, a kind of beautiful dream the white folks were having, a lie they were telling themselves: that goodness can come from badness, that it's possible to be civilized with one another without treating as human beings those whose blood, sweat, and mother's milk made possible the life of privilege they led.”

WealthSlaveryPrivilegeDelusion
Book:Roots: The Saga of an American Family
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“Listen, Misaki. In this world, there is an evil organization. Its name is N.H.K. N.H.K. is a huge organization that spans the entire globe. They're an evil, secret society, and they're the ones who put us through this pain. It's all the N.H.K.'s fault. After this, if anything bad happens around you, it's all the N.H.K.'s doing. Everything is the N.H.K.'s fault! For starters, the name N.H.K. itself is simply a coincidence. The actual name doesn't matter at all. If you don't like "N.H.K.", you can call it whatever you want. If you wish, you can even call it Satan. Or call it the evil God. It all means the same thing. It's true. The names don't matter at all. They're just a set of sounds. An imaginary enemy torturing you: That is the real essence of N.H.K. For example, take that girl from my high school literature club. To her, it could signify the 'Nihon Hiyowa Kyokai', as her own weakness continually defeated her. She was weak in both mind and spirit. [...] In the case of Misaki, N.H.K. means 'Nihon Hikan Kyokai'. Because of the misfortunes you were born with, Misaki, you saw everything in a pessimistic way. Please, forgive me for being alive. Don't hate me. You were always were self-defeating like that. Then, my own N.H.K... Well, it's actually the N.H.K.'s fault that I became a hikikomori, just as it's their fault that you suffer, Misaki. That's the truth. I learned this through a certain technique. I fought with them. I've been fighting them for a long time, but it's no use anymore. I've finally fallen victim to them, and they'll kill me before long. But Misaki, you're fine. You must live on, in health.”

PainEvilSocietyWeaknessDelusionConspiraciesHikikomori
Book:Welcome to the N.H.K.
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“In the natural sciences, some checks exist on the prolonged acceptance of nutty ideas, which do not hold up well under experimental and observational tests and cannot readily be shown to give rise to useful working technologies. But in economics and the other social studies, nutty ideas may hang around for centuries. Today, leading presidential candidates and tens of millions of voters in the USA embrace ideas that might have been drawn from a 17th-century book on the theory and practice of mercantilism, and multitudes of politicians and ordinary people espouse notions that Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and others exploded more than two centuries ago. In these realms, nearly everyone simply believes whatever he feels good about believing.”

GovernmentEvilPoliticsFreedomLibertyCrazyVotePopulationLibertarianSocialismCommunismDumbVotingDelusionAnarchyMentalFree MarketCoercionElectionsCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismRetardedLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAncapAnarcho CapitalismIdiotsAustrian School Of EconomicsDumbing DownIdiocracy
Author:Robert Higgs
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“The grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence. Many politicians promise green, green grass by blending niceties with delusion and by using alluring confidence tricks. They voice attractive tales and tell things, people like to hear. But the post-factual grassland often appears to be parched and barren. ("The grass was greener over there")”

PeopleUseConfidencePoliticianPromiseGreenTricksTalesGrassAttractiveDelusionFencePoliticiansLikeBarrenThingsHearOtherAlluringGreenerTellNicetiesOftenAppearSidePost FactualBlendParchedGrasslandTo Voice
Author:Erik Pevernagie
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“As he once wrote of Kipling, his own enduring influence can be measured by a number of terms and phrases—doublethink, thought police, 'Some animals are more equal than others'—that he embedded in our language and in our minds. In Orwell's own mind there was an inextricable connection between language and truth, a conviction that by using plain and unambiguous words one could forbid oneself the comfort of certain falsehoods and delusions. Every time you hear a piece of psychobabble or propaganda—'people's princess,' say, or 'collateral damage,' or 'peace initiative'—it is good to have a well-thumbed collection of his essays nearby. His main enemy in discourse was euphemism, just as his main enemy in practice was the abuse of power, and (more important) the slavish willingness of people to submit to it.”

MindTruthLanguagePeacePowerInfluenceLiesConvictionEqualityPropagandaPhrasesDelusionAnimalsSubmissionEuphemismGeorge OrwellCollateral DamagePlain LanguageThought PoliceTermsDoublethinkRudyard KiplingDiana Princess Of Wales
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“She possessed a strong faculty for simply refusing to admit an unpleasant situation, and going quite blank where it was concerned. If, for instance, you had asked her whether, eighteen years before, she had undergone a face-lifting operation, she would have denied it, and believed the denial, and moreover would have supplied gratuitously, as a special joke, a list of people who had 'really' had their faces lifted or undergone other rejuvenating operations.”

DelusionSelf Deception
Book:Memento Mori
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“Those with NPD gain power over others by holding things over their head. This is often financially, but not always. They use what's important to you. They fish for your deepest desire and sink the hook. Take a look at your life. Have you been caught? Is your desire and gratitude out of balance? You can get free. Don't struggle. Follow your heart. -promotion for Escape from Narc Island”

TruthPoetryPowerAwarenessAbuseDelusionSelf DeceptionNarcissistic AbusePunk Poetry
Book:Escape from Narc Island
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“We propose a general division of delusions;   “self deceptions of common feats" (like mysticism, erotomania, identity delusions, possession delusions, grandiose delusions) and "self deception of shield feats" (delusions of jealousy, delusions of reference as being slandered, persecution as being poisoned).  The theory of the shield feats can be the connecting piece between self deception and delusions, because although always delusions of grandiosity could easily be understood as self deception to enjoy a more pleasant world, the frequency of negative delusions seems to destroy this simplistic hypothesis. However , when considering the shield feats, then it is the link that connects the intuitive hypothesis of self-deception with psychosis , which happens to be understood as a continuum of the same phenomenon”

PsychologyDelusionSelf DeceptionPsychosisDelusions Of GrandeurDelusional LoveErotomania
Book:THE SHIELD FEATS THEORY: a different hypothesis concerning the etiology of delusions and other disorders.
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“At the present time there still exist many doctrines which choose to leave in the shadow certain troubling aspects of a too complex situation. But their attempt to lie to us is in vain. Cowardice does not pay. Those reasonable metaphysics, those consoling ethics with which they would like to entice us only accentuate the disorder from which we suffer.”

EthicsIdeologyDelusionAmbiguitySelf Deception
Book:The Ethics of Ambiguity
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“We live, I suppose, in the unconfessed hope that the rules will at some point be broken, along with the normal course of things and custom and history, and that this will happen to us, that we will experience it, that we — that is, I alone — will be the ones to see it. We always aspire, I suppose, to being the chosen ones, and it is unlikely otherwise that we would be prepared to live out the entire course of an entire life, which, however short or long, gradually gets the better of us.”

OptimismDelusionExceptionalism
Book:Fever and Spear
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“I have learned well the roles and scripts we people create for ourselves, and how afraid most people are of stepping outside them, more comfortable (even if more miserable) to keep their bubbles in place, even if those bubbles are delusions of grandeur that lead to illusions of impossibility, even when shown there is another way, a way that is more challenging, but also more gratifying.”

StoriesFearWorkImpossibleIllusionDelusionChallengeRewardProfessionally Unreasonable
Author:Shellen Lubin
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