Rudyard Kipling Quotes

Start making excuses and there's no end to it. I can't live that kind of life.

An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.

What amazes me is how far some people will go to justify their behavior to themselves, just to preserve that self-perception.

An excuse is sometimes more ugly than guilt.

Every vice has its excuse ready.

[P]erhaps you notice how the denial is so often the preface to the justification.

Rationalizing is the self-exculpation which occurs when we feel ourselves, or our group, accused of misapprehension or error.

Excuses sound best to the person that's making 'em up!

I. Hate. Excuses. Excuses are a disease.

Excuses change nothing, but make everyone feel better.

Blame is just a lazy person's way of making sense of chaos.

There are very few people who are going to look into the mirror and say, 'That person I see is a savage monster;' instead, they make up some construction that justifies what they do.

Once you start lying, you get kind of comfortable. You start believing it. Especially if you truly believe you didn't really cheat because you were doing what everybody else was doing.

Self-justification is a treacherous servant.

One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.

An excuse is the handy explanation we offer when we disappoint other people.

Man can and does rationalize his sins. He finds reasons for all his weakness, invents excuses that first calm and then deaden his conscience. He blames God, society, education, and environment for his wrong doing.

An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie; for an excuse is a lie guarded.

The worst part is not in making a mistake but in trying to justify it, instead of using it as a heaven-sent warning of our mindlessness or our ignorance.

We did what our people do all the time, we told ourselves something we did was right and we found a way to justify it, even though we knew it was wrong.

he was trying to convince himself that he wasn't guilty.

No one is willing to acknowledge a fault in himself when a more agreeable motive can be found for the estrangement of his acquaintances.

In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people's, we do not accept them easily enough.

It seems to me that it's actually harder to invent excuses than it is to get a sale.

Don't knock rationalization. Where would we be without it? I don't know anyone who'd get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations. They're more important than sex. Have you ever gone a week without a rationalization?