Nathaniel Hawthorne Quotes

Self-analysis always cheats.

Only one deception is possible in the infinite sense, self-deception.

It is as easy to deceive one's self without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their finding out.

Roland had taught him that self-deception was nothing but pride in disguise, an indulgence to be denied.

It is easier to deceive yourself, and to do so unperceived, than to deceive another.

We are not hypocrites in our sleep.

Dandyism is a lie which reveals the truth, and the truth is that we are what we pretend to be.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.

Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself

Oh.' I shot upright. 'I was in Mongolia.' Note to self: learn to be a less extreme liar.

The trouble with writing a book about yourself is that you can’t fool around. If you write about someone else, you can stretch the truth from here to Finland. If you write about yourself the slightest deviation makes you realize instantly that there may be honor among thieves, but you are just a dirty liar.

No matter how much we ask after the truth, self-awareness is often unpleasant. We do not feel kindly toward the Truthsayer.

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.

If your not honest with yourself, how the hell are you gonna be honest with me.

No satisfaction based upon self-deception is solid, and however unpleasant the truth may be, it is better to face it once and for all, to get used to it, and to proceed to build your life in accordance with it.

We are our own aptest deceiver.

It's a wise person, I guess, who knows he's dumb, and an honest person who knows he's a liar. And it's a dumb person, I guess, whose convinced he's wise...-Bob Slocum

I have met a thousand scamps; but I never met one who considered himself so. Self-knowledge isn't so common.

Perhaps there is no other knowing than the mere competence of the act. If at the heart of one's being, there is no self to which one ought to be true, then sincerity is simply nerve; it lies in the unabashed vigor of the pretense. But pretense is only pretense when it is assumed that the act is not true to the agent. Find the agent.

All types of knowledge, ultimately mean self knowledge.

All knowledge leads to self-knowledge.

Lying to other people is fine and usually funny, but lying to yourself is tacky.

Many truths which are not believed are called lies,' the Laughing Beast said. 'Mirrors do not themselves lie unless they have been enchanted. Ordinary mirrors merely reflect what is revealed to them. People lie and mirrors reflect people. If your mother feared mirrors in your land, she feared herself.