Francis Spufford Quotes

There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.

It may not be impossible, but that our Faculties may be so construed, as always to deceive us in the things we judge most certain and assured.

The easiest person to deceive is one's self.

Humans believe so many lies because we aren't aware. We ignore the truth or we just don't see the truth. When we are educated, we accumulate a lot of knowledge, and all that knowledge is just like a wall of fog that doesn't allow us to perceive the truth, what really is.

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

Belief in the absence of illusions is itself an illusion.

He's suffering from Politicians' Logic. Something must be done, this is something, therefore we must do it.

No one is served or benefitted by believing in false or faulty ideas.

People do not believe lies because they have to, but because they want to.

Perception is created and twisted so quickly.

Pray look better, Sir... those things yonder are no giants, but windmills.

It's so easy for us to misperceive and see the things in others that we want to see. And, when we're wrong, and often we're dead wrong, we miss the truth.

The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit, since what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.

Belief and seeing: They are both often wrong.

Perception's not reality.

Perception is not always reality.

People are more likely to believe a big lie than a small one.

Misunderstanding is my cornerstone. It's everyone's, come to think of it. Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet.

There isn't anything so grotesque or so incredible that the average human being can't believe it.

There are no such self-deceivers as those who think they reason when they only feel.

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

How wrong to think I was anyone else, like thinking grass stains make you a beautiful view, like getting kissed makes you kissable, like feeling warm makes you coffee, like liking movies makes you a director. How utterly incorrect to think it any other way, a box of crap is treasures, a boy smiling means it, a gentle moment is a life improved.

What is characteristic of illusions is that they are derived from human wishes.

We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.