James Harvey Robinson Quotes

Self-justification is a treacherous servant.

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

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

Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning.

Human beings will justify anything.

In case you haven't noticed, people get hard-hearted against the people they hurt. Because they can't stand it. Literally. To think we did that to someone. I did that. So we think of all the reasons why it's okay we did whatever we did.

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?

Human beings have an almost unlimited capacity for self-delusion. We can justify any amount of sadness if it fits our own particular standard of reality.

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

I never made a mistake in my life; at least, never one that I couldn't explain away afterwards.

We're all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may not have made.

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.

I have a very highly developed sense of denial.

We didn't make no mistakes. We didn't make no mistakes.

Changing ideas is a strain not to be lightly incurred, particularly when these ideas are intimately related to one’s self-esteem ... men have elaborated an explanation for their situation in life.... Their rationales are endowed with moral qualities

I'm very good at denial.

The human mind has infinite capacity to rationalize, and evil characters just push that boundary a bit. Whatever they're doing, they think it makes sense to do it, and they think they have a good reason to do it. In short, they feel justified.

I surely don't think ignorance is bliss. But like everything else that has survived thousands of years of human evolution, ignorance - like denial, self-delusion, and magical thinking - seems to have its uses.

Error is always talkative.

Error is ever talkative.

Every vice has its excuse ready.

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

If people got hit on the head by a baseball bat every week, pretty soon they would invent reasons why getting hit on the head with a baseball bat was a good thing.

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.