Meryl Streep Quotes

The vain.- We are like shop windows in which we are continually arranging, concealing or illuminating the supposed qualities other ascribe to us - in order to deceive ourselves.

We are one of only three species on our planet that can claim to be self-aware, yet self-delusion may be a more significant characteristic of our kind.

I don't know who Maxime thinks she's kidding. If Hagrid's half-giant, she definitely is. Big bones... the only thing that's got bigger bones than her is a dinosaur.

To a commonplace man of limited intellect, for instance, nothing is simpler than to imagine himself an original character, and to revel in that belief without the slightest misgiving.

Once I looked into a mirror at my face I felt like it was completely convincing. I was Salieri.

We never see ourselves as others see us.

What wild imaginations one forms where dear self is concerned! How sure to be mistaken!

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

There is this difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man, really is so; but he that thinks himself the wisest, is generally the greatest fool.

I know I come off differently than I think of myself. I'm always surprised by what people say about me.

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

A person himself believes that all the other portraits are good likenesses except the one of himself.

If you begin to think you're something you're not, you're looking in the wrong mirror.

I have a perfectly average skewed perception of myself. We often don't know what we're like.

I think people deceive themselves about themselves, particularly as they get older.

Real life? Well, I just hope mine isn't investigated. They might find that I don't really exist - that I'm just a hologram.

Humans naturally think more highly of themselves and their communities than their evidence can justify, but deny that they are biased in this way. This sincere confidence helps people to convince others to think highly of them, and to convince their group of their strong attachment to it. If you force yourself to face facts squarely you may gain better insight into yourself and human nature, and perhaps even signal a certain rare ability to achieve this result. But you may less convince others of your other abilities, and to convince your group of your loyalty

The capacity of this body for self delusion appears to this Senator to be unlimited.

Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing

Each community has a curious and distorted image of itself which is always flattering.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

For people at the bottom who are really doing badly — those in the bottom 10th or 15th percentile — they think their work falls in the 60th or 55th percentile, so, above average. People at the bottom still think they're outperforming other people.

People create the sort of myths they want to believe about themselves.

You don't see yourself in the same way other people see you.

People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception.