Bertrand Russell Quotes

The most common sort of lie is the one uttered to one's self.

The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.

The truth is, narratives of self-justification burble beneath more of our relationships and endeavors than we would care to admit.

The lies we tell ourselves are the most subtle of all lies.

The worst deluded are the self-deluded.

I suppose our capacity for self-delusion is boundless.

The ingenuity of self-deception is inexhaustible.

…we all lie to ourselves; we tell our own selves more lies than we ever do other people.

How much rationality and higher protection there is in such self-deception, and how much falseness I still require in order to allow myself again and again the luxury of my sincerity.

Insincerity in a man's own heart must make all his enjoyments, all that concerns him, unreal; so that his whole life must seem like a merely dramatic representation.

The only good in pretending is the fun we get out of fooling ourselves that we fool somebody.

Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred.

The instinct for self-deception in human beings makes them try to banish from their minds dangers of which at bottom they are perfectly aware by declaring them non-existent.

We deceive and flatter no one by such delicate artificies as we do our own selves.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit.

The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one's self.

Take the life-lie away from the average man and straight away you take away his happiness.

Pope had been flattered till he thought himself one of the moving powers of the system of life. When he talked of laying down his pen, those who sat round him intreated and implored; and self-love did not suffer him to suspect that they went away and laughed.

The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him.

I'm really interested in self-deception. Really interested in how people live in bubble universes. How people can fail to see the seemingly obvious.

When we successfully deceive others, they are not aware of it; the same is true with self-deception.

Self-deception is sometimes as necessary a tool as a crowbar.

All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretences did I cheat myself.

Here was a torture that Greek inventors of the Feast and the Stone had omitted from their Hades: the Blanket of Self-Deception. A lovely warm blanket as far as it covered the soul in torment, but it never quite covered everything.

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