James Baldwin Quotes

Nobody is a villain in their own story. We're all the heroes of our own stories.

All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes.

No one is an unjust villain in his own mind. Even - perhaps even especially those who are the worst of us. Some of the cruelest tyrants in history were motivated by noble ideals, or made choices they would call "hard but necessary" for the good of their nation. We're all the hero of our own story.

Your character is always right. No real person thinks they're being stupid or misguided or bigoted or evil or just plain wrong - so your characters can't, either.

I don't think any evil character thinks that they are evil - they think they have insight that people don't.

Your positions on EVERYTHING are based on the story you tell yourself and not some universal fact from the universal fact database.

Men rarely see their own actions as unjustified.

There's no black and white in this world; it's all grey. That's what people are like! No one think they're a baddie. Everyone thinks they're trying to do their bit to make the world a better place.

Every villain has their belief system that makes perfect sense to them.

One man's holy is another woman's sublime.

When someone starts talking to me about the truth, what I hear is what they're telling me about themselves.

I don't think I could tell the whole truth about anything. That's a pretty heavy burden, because we all just view the world through this little piece of coke bottle.

Human beings are about 1,000 times dumber and meaner than they think they are.

Such as every man is inwardly so he judgeth outwardly.

Everyone's perspective of themselves and others is based on the limitations of their exposure.

Our inner weighing of evidence is not a careful mathematical calculation resulting in a probabilistic estimate of truth, but more like a whirlpool blending of the objective and the personal. The result is a set of beliefs - both conscious and unconscious - that guide us in interpreting all the events of our lives.

Keep in mind, Eragon, that no one thinks himself a villain, and few make decisions they think are wrong. A person may dislike his choice, but he will stand by it because, even in the worst circumstances, he believes that it was the best option available to him at the time.

There is nothing that deceives us more than our own judgment when used to give an opinion on our own works. It is sound in judging the work of our enemies but not that of our friends, for hate and love are two of the most powerfully motivating factors found among living things.

All of us have theories about the world and about ourselves. We will go to great lengths to prove ourselves right because it keeps the world in our head coherent and understandable.

You see persons and things not as they are but as you are.

Every villain is a hero in his own mind.

Very few people see their own actions as truly evil,... It is left to their victims to decide what is evil and what is not.

The Fondness we have for Self, and the Relation which other Persons and Things have to ourselves, furnish us with another long Rank of Prejudices.

Making matters worse is people's natural inclination to be easy on themselves, judging themselves according to their good intentions-while holding others to a higher standard and judging them by their worst actions.

Every person thinks his own intellect perfect, and his own child handsome.