Franz Grillparzer Quotes

Pretexts are not wanting when one wishes to use them.

Nowadays those are rewarded who make right appear wrong.

People who lie, particularly those who lie really big, can't do it effectively unless they feel that there's a righteous power behind what they're doing. You're entitled to lie because the end justifies the means.

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

In intelligence you can justify almost anything you want to if you go about it with enough zeal and effort which is what happened.

You can hire logic, in the shape of a lawyer, to prove anything that you want to prove.

Lies are a little fortress; inside them you can feel safe and powerful. Through your little fortress of lies you try to run your life and manipulate others. But the fortress needs walls, so you build some. These are the justifications for your lies. You know, like you are doing this to protect someone you love, to keep them from feeling pain. Whatever works, just so you feel okay about the lies.

If there is one thing that I take pride in, it is the fact that I never, ever make a charge without offering a substantial amount of support for it. You may ultimately end up not agreeing with me, but you will have to concede that I offered much evidence in support of my position, something that people frequently do not do.

Proof is the product that you put on the field.

Every time the Trump people challenge me, I bring the receipts.

We're awash in toxic memes right now. One of the most toxic, I think because it enables so many others, is the idea that truth doesn't matter, that truth is just relative, that there's no such thing as establishing the truth of anything. Your truth, my truth, we're all entitled to our own truths. That's pernicious, it's attractive to many people, and it is used to exploit people in all sorts of nefarious ways. The truth really does matter.

A thing that nobody believes cannot be proved too often.

To be flattered is grateful, even when we know that our praises are not believed by those who pronounce them; for they prove, at least, our power, and show that our favour is valued, since it is purchased by the meanness of falsehood.

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

If you’re that clever you can argue yourself into anything.

What convinces is not necessarily true-it is merely convincing: a note for asses.

Logic: an instrument used for bolstering a prejudice.

A form of self-delusion.

The greater your powers of self-delusion, the greater will be the apparent efficacy of this untruth.

The truth is far from you, so you know you got to lie. Then you're all the time defending what you can never justify.

It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown.

You do not convince me. You rationalize your actions and because the result is favorable you become right.

If you cannot endure to be thought in the wrong, you will begin to do terrible things to make the wrong appear right.

Why do you keep maintaining your ideas are right if you can't prove them?

We humans, you see, have an infinite capacity for self-rationalization.