Selective Perception Quotes

To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

Human beings seem to have an almost unlimited capacity to deceive themselves, and to deceive themselves into taking their own lies for truth.

It doesn't matter if the truth is right there out in front of your eyes. You will find a way, a mechanism, in order to keep your own system of denial. So as I always say it, denial is a river that runs in the - in Egypt. So we became very good in that.

We always try to interpret things in accordance with what we want and not as they are.

It is always easier to deny reality than to allow our worldview to be shattered, a fact that was as true of die-hard Stalinists at the height of the purges as it is of libertarian climate change deniers today.

People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.

A man sees what he wants to see, And disregards the rest.

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.

The fanatical Communist refuses to believe any unfavorable report or evidence about Russia, nor will he be disillusioned by seeing with his own eyes the cruel misery inside the Soviet promised land. It is the true believer's ability to "shut his eyes and stop his ears" to facts that do not deserve to be either seen or heard which is the source of his unequaled fortitude and constancy. He cannot be frightened by danger, nor disheartened by obstacles, nor baffled by contradictions because he denies their existence.

People do not believe lies because they have to, but because they want to.

If you're saying something that people don't want to hear or accept, a significant proportion of them will reply with hostility. Not because they know the facts, or because they have researched it themselves, but because they're so psychologically involved in believing good news that they will oppose it with a reflex.

Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning.

People who refuse to accept unpleasant truths have no right to complain about politicians who lie to them. What other kind of candidates would such people elect?

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

No evidence against a firmly-held belief, no matter how good or abundant it may be, will sway the true believer.

I think love is blind. You don't see it; you don't hear what people are saying or what you're saying. You don't see what you're doing. All you see is the person in front of you. That's it.

How hard I find it to see what is right in front of my eyes!

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

It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept.

You believe what you want to believe

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.

The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.

The tendency of the casual mind is to pick out or stumble upon a sample which supports or defies its prejudices, and then to make it representative of a whole class.

Rationalization is a process of not perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one’s emotions.