Jane Wagner Quotes

Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning.

We have a never sated appetite for self deception.

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.

One theme we look at is what psychologists call motivated reasoning; lay people refer to it as self-deception, wishful thinking or rationalization. The list of creative ways people have for reaching conclusions they wish to reach and dismissing conclusions they find threatening is amazing. We've shown that it goes down even to the level of visual perception: You literally see what you want to see.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit.

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

Men who cannot deceive others are very often successful at deceiving themselves.

It's the easiest thing in the world for a man to deceive himself.

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.

Sometimes people need to lie to themselves most of all.

How can you take seriously someone who likes to believe something because he finds it 'comforting'?

Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.

Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit, since what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.

Men quickly find a theory that adapts itself to their desires.

If you assume away most or all of the questions or difficulties, you can persuade yourself of just about anything.

It is in the nature of human beings to bend information in the direction of desired conclusions.

My life is devoted to self-delusion - and I have a great capacity for that - but it's the thing that gives me the most pleasure, so I can't complain about it.

The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

Man's ability to delude himself is infinite.

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

Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts.

Nothing is so easy as to deceive oneself; for what we wish, we readily believe.

Sometimes I wanted to believe something so badly, I deliberately manufactured excuses and ignored painful reality.

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