David Sedaris Quotes

When we believe in lies, we cannot see the truth, so we make thousands of assumptions and we take them as truth. One of the biggest assumptions we make is that the lies we believe are the truth!

We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.

No one who lives in error is free.

Owing to ignorance of the rope the rope appears to be a snake; owing to ignorance of the Self the transient state arises of the individualized, limited, phenomenal aspect of the Self.

You have an idea of the way you think it is, and it's not that way at all, it's something else.

I've always been surprised at the number of people who think we've got it all figured out. It's incorrect, and it's a real problem.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit.

All you know is what you think you know, but that isn't always what's real.

The majority of people have no understanding of the things with which they daily meet, nor, when instructed, do they have any right knowledge of them, although to themselves they seem to have.

You think you know someone. But mostly you just know what you want to know.

Imperfect understanding is often more dangerous than ignorance.

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

If you look at the history of big obstacles in understanding our world, there's usually an intuitive assumption underlying them that's wrong.

Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

People don't want to hear the truth; they never do. They wanna live in some kind of fantasy.

Three-fourths of the mistakes a man makes are made because he does not really know what he thinks he knows.

If you are sure you understand everything that is going on, you are hopelessly confused.

It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.

It's what a fellow thinks he knows that hurts him.

The majority of men prefer delusion to truth. It soothes. It is easy to grasp. Above all, it fits more snugly than the truth into a universe of false appearances—of complex and irrational phenomena, defectively grasped.

We're all living in some state of illusion, even if modestly.

I guess a little bit of delusion can go a long way.

It's not the things you don't know that trip you up. It's the things you think you know, but you don't. You fail to ask a certain question because you believe you know the answer. Separating your information from your assumptions can be very tricky business.