David Hume Quotes

Where ambition can cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of passions.

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

And now, when I have summed up all my store, Thinking (so I myself deceive) So rich a chaplet thence to weave As never yet the King of Glory wore, Alas! I find the serpent old, That, twining in his speckled breast, About the flowers disguised does fold With wreaths of fame and interest.

We only acknowledge small faults in order to make it appear that we are free from great ones.

Self-justification is a treacherous servant.

Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning.

Many, many people exaggerate their accomplishments, blame their failures on others, and misrepresent reality in order to make themselves look better. This behavior is ubiquitous—sometimes intentional, more often subconscious. In ordinary life, we tolerate it, mutely or not, hoping that we are not as bad as the person whose lies we are listening to.

We do ourselves a disservice when we self-servingly massage the record.

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

You may be sure that when a man begins to call himself a realist he is preparing to do something that he is secretly ashamed of doing.

Man's ability to delude himself is infinite.

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

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

Psychologically speaking, one may say that the hypocrite is too ambitious; not only does he want to appear virtuous before others, he wants to convince himself.

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

You've got to lie to stay halfway interested in yourself.

I've heard lots of people lie to themselves but they never fool anyone.

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

Is devotion to others a cover for the hungers and the needs of the self, of which one is ashamed? I was always ashamed to take. So I gave. It was not virtue. It was a disguise.

I think the easiest people to fool are ourselves. Fooling ourselves may even be a necessary precondition for fooling others.

The human capacity for self-delusion is boundless, and the effects of belief are overpowering.

We fool ourselves so much we could do it for a living.

Our capacity for self-deception has no known limits

We seek and offer ourselves to be gulled.

The ambitious deceive themselves in proposing an end to their ambition; that end, when attained, becomes a means.