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Self Deception Quotes

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Self Deception Quotes

“Poor feeling hijacks thinking for self-deception: to hide harsh truths, avoid action, evade responsibility, and, as the existentialists might put it, flee from freedom. Thus, poor feeling is a kind of moral failing, indeed, the deepest kind, and virtue principally consists in correcting and refining our emotions and the values that they reflect. To feel the right thing is to do the right thing, without any particular need for conscious thought or effort.”

ReasonPhilosophyEmotionsEthicsExistentialismEmotional IntelligencePsychoanalysisSelf DeceptionCognition
Book:Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions
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“Self-deception and vanity are grievous sin. The ego is the cause of all human suffering. We suffer from life only when we fail to examine the cause of our sorrow. Letting go of destructive illusions and freeing oneself from egotism of self-pity enables a person to sense the rich intertexture of their inner world, which is the only facet of reality that we exercise exclusive dominion and control.”

SufferingSorrowIllusionVanityEnlightenment QuotesEgotismSelf DeceptionSelf PityEnlightenment PrinciplesSuffering QuoteSuffering Of HumanitySorrow QuotesSuffering LifeEnlightment
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“Perhaps the strangest thing about this illusion of control is not that it happens but that it seems to confer many of the psychological benefits of genuine control. In fact, the one group of people who seem generally immune to this illusion are the clinically depressed, who tend to estimate accurately the degree to which they can control events in most situation.”

PsychologyDepressionSelf Deception
Book:Stumbling on Happiness
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“Every culture that’s ever existed has operated under the illusion that it understood 95% of reality and that the other 5% would be delivered in the next 18 months, and from Egypt forward they’ve been running around believing they had a perfect grip on things and yet we look back at every society that preceded us with great smugness at how naive they all were. Well, it never occurs to us, then, that maybe we’re whistling in the dark too! That the universe is stranger than you CAN suppose, and that that openness that that perception imparts is a great joy, a great blessing, because then you can live your life not in service to some fascistic metaphor but in service to the living mystery: the fact that you’re not going to understand it; it is not going to yield to logic; or magic; or any other technique that’s been developed…”

CultureUniverseStrangeIllusionSelf Deception
Author:Terence McKenna
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“Tossing out ideas itself was good. Stimulating the conference was something that should be welcomed. I didn’t mind if a formal brainstorm was chosen for the sake of presenting many ideas. But in the brainstorm and conference we were holding where nobody’s ideas were rejected, there was no foreseeable conclusion in sight. The conference I thought was proceeding on smoothly was beginning to look nonsensical. When I noticed, my hands recording the minutes had stopped. I loosely let my hands hang under the desk and sat there in silence watching the conference. The expression that I had was completely different from those who were energetically involved in the discussion. They had vivid and bright smiles floating on their faces. That was when I noticed. They were all enjoying this moment. That’s to say, they were enjoying this exchange between each other. What they wanted wasn’t the very idea of volunteer service, but the self­-acknowledgement of them doing these activities. It’s not that they wanted to do work. They just wanted to be immersed with the feeling of working. They just wanted to feel like they were actually doing it. And then, they would feel like they did everything that they could, where ultimately, everything had turned into nothing.”

WorkSelf DeceptionSlacking Off
Book:やはり俺の青春ラブコメはまちがっている。9
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“Raging crime, class warfare, invasive immigrants, light morals, public misbehavior. Always we convince ourselves that the parade of unwelcome and despised is a new phenomenon, which is why the phrase "the good old days" has passed from cliché to self-parody.”

SocietyCrimePrejudiceImmigrationMoralsSocial ChangeSelf DeceptionExclusionParodyXenophobiaSocial NormsClass WarfareClichesNostaliga
Book:Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City
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“On the raptors kept for falconry: "They talk every night, deep into the darkness. They say about how they were taken, about what they can remember about their homes, about their lineage and the great deeds of their ancestors, about their training and what they've learned and will learn. It is military conversation, really, like what you might have in the mess of a crack cavalry regiment: tactics, small arms, maintenance, betting, famous hunts, wine, women, and song. Another subject they have is food. It is a depressing thought," he continued, "but of course they are mainly trained by hunger. They are a hungry lot, poor chaps, thinking of the best restaurants where they used to go, and how they had champagne and caviar and gypsy music. Of course, they all come from noble blood." "What a shame that they should be kept prisoners and hungry." "Well, they do not really understand that they are prisoners any more than the cavalry officers do. They look on themselves as being 'dedicated to their profession,' like an order of knighthood or something of that sort. You see, the member of the Muse [where Raptors are kept for falconry] is restricted to the Raptors, and that does help a lot. They know that none of the lower classes can get in. Their screened perches do not carry Blackbirds or such trash as that. And then, as for the hungry part, they're far from starving or that kind of hunger: they're in training, you know! And like everybody in strict training, they think about food.”

Self DeceptionClass StruggleSocial Commentary
Book:The Sword in the Stone
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“There are a great number of ego defenses, and the combinations and circumstances in which we use them reflect on our personality. Indeed, one could go so far as to argue that the self is nothing but the sum of its ego defenses, which are constantly shaping, upholding, protecting, and repairing it. The self is like a cracked mask that is in constant need of being pieced together. But behind the mask there is nobody at home.”

PersonalityEgoPsychoanalysisSelf DeceptionPsychotherapyMasksPersonhoodFreudPhilosophy Of MindSelfhoodEgo DefencesEgo Defenses
Book:Hide and Seek: The Psychology of Self-Deception
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“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.”

DenialSelf DeceptionConfabulation
Book:Brain Fiction: Self-Deception and the Riddle of Confabulation
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“Видишь, я тогда все се- бя спрашивал: зачем я так глуп, что если другие глу- пы и коли я знаю уж наверно, что они глупы, то сам не хочу быть умнее? Потом я узнал, Соня, что если ждать, пока все станут умными, то слишком уж дол- го будет… Потом я еще узнал, что никогда этого и не будет, что не переменятся люди, и не переделать их никому, и труда не стоит тратить! Да, это так! Это их закон… Закон, Соня! Это так!.. И я теперь знаю, Соня, что кто крепок и силен умом и духом, тот над ними и властелин! Кто много посмеет, тот у них и прав. Кто на большее может плюнуть, тот у них и законодатель, а кто больше всех может посметь, тот и всех правее! Так доселе велось и так всегда будет! Только слепой не разглядит!”

LifeWisdomTruthSocietySelf DeceptionLoathe
Book:Преступление и наказание
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“Well, I know a guy, he's from far far away He's a songwriter, he got something to say He says, "People in this city are too busy to hang out This town's so spread out, no one would hear you if you shout" Everyone's got a script to sell and someplace else they want to be There's always a lock that would open if you could just find the key" (It Ain't Easy Being Green)”

DreamsHollywoodLos AngelesSelf DeceptionMusic IndustryIllusionsHopesSouthern CaliforniaMovie Industry
Author:Shannon McNally
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“The fact is that we have no way of knowing if the person who we think we are is at the core of our being. Are you a decent girl with the potential to someday become an evil monster, or are you an evil monster that thinks it's a decent girl?" "Wouldn't I know which one I was?" "Good God, no. The lies we tell other people are nothing to the lies we tell ourselves.”

TruthPersonalityPerceptionLiesGood And EvilSelf DeceptionTruth And LiesVillains
Book:Death Bringer
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“She thought men were saviors... ...And she looked for more in them than what they were... Only to rescue herself from those she wished would rescue her... And isn't that the most tragic lie... The lie where we tell what we wished were true and believe it...? She had an artificial memory, a prosthesis to a past that never was... She was like a party that no one ever went to... Like a cure...without a disease... And isn't that the greatest fear of all...to be ready with the answers to questions that no one asks anymore?”

PoetryTragedySelf Deception
Book:Things I meant to say to you when we were old
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“I have never seen battles quite as terrifyingly beautiful as the ones I fight when my mind splinters and races, to swallow me into my own madness, again.”

LifeMindLife QuotesCreativityMindfulnessMadnessQuoteChaosQuote Of The DayMental IllnessQuotes About LifeMental Health QuotesSelf DeceptionParanoiaStigmaMental Health AwarenessSelf DestructionDepression QuotesSuicidal ThoughtsBipolar DisorderMadness And SanityManic DepressionStillness Of The MindBipolar QuotesMental Illness QuotesSuicidal IdeationMood DisordersRacing Thoughts
Book:Hush
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“Sometimes, we expect life to work a certain way and when it doesn’t we blame others or see it as a sign, rather than face the pain of the choices we should or shouldn’t have made. Real healing won’t begin until we stop saying, “God prevented this or that.” Often in our attempt to protect ourselves from pain, we leave things to fate and don’t take chances. Or, we don’t work hard enough to keep the blessings we are given. Maybe, we didn't recognize a blessing, until it was too late. Often, it is the lies we tell ourselves that keeps us stuck in a delusion of not being responsible for our lives. We leave it all up to God. The truth is we are not leaves blowing toward our destiny without any control. To believe this is to take away our freedom of choice and that of others. The final stage of grief is acceptance. This can’t be reached through always believing God willed the outcomes in our lives, despite our inaction or actions. To think so is to take the easy escape from our accountability. Sometimes, God has nothing to do with it. Sometimes, we just screwed up and guarded our heart from accepting it, by putting our outcome on God as the reason it turned out the way it did. Faith is a beautiful thing, but without work we can give into a mysticism of destiny that really doesn't teach us lessons or consequences for our actions. Life then becomes a distorted delusion of no accountability with God always to blame for battles we walked away from, won or loss.”

LoveTryingWisdomActionJobsChoicesRelationshipsGriefPracticeSelf HelpAcceptanceIntegritySelf ImprovementLiesResponsibleSelf AwarenessMistakesDenialMysticismAccountabilityMysticalCareerConsequencesExcusesSelf DeceptionHoly GhostFriendshipsFreedom Of ChoiceScrew UpsSelf RighteousnessFreedom To ChooseDelusionsBlamingLack Of CompassionLack Of ResponsibilityPsychic ReadingsFaith Without Works Is DeadFaith Without WorksSelf LiesIn ActionCopoutsBreak ThroughsEasy OutEscape Goat
Author:Shannon L. Alder
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“We protect our minds by an elaborate system of abstractions, ambiguities, metaphors and similes from the reality we do not wish to know too clearly; we lie to ourselves, in order that we may still have the excuse of ignorance, the alibi of stupidity and incomprehension, possessing which we can continue with a good conscience to commit and tolerate the most monstrous crimes”

RealityFantasyConscienceSelf DeceptionSelf DelusionAcquiescence
Book:The Olive Tree and other essays
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