Belief in the absence of illusions is itself an illusion.
Young people think that nothing bad will ever happen to them.
If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn't. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.
Self-delusion is one of the funniest things there is.
When all else fails there's always delusion.
Complacency is a state of mind that exists only in retrospective: it has to be shattered before being ascertained.
I had been told by so many people that I was going to be nominated, that I should be nominated, that there wasn't any question about my being nominated. I don't think it was a surprise.
Nothing turns off an investor more than when an entrepreneur comes in with a ridiculous valuation.
Most of us...are naturally more sanguine and hopeful than logic would justify. We seem to be so constituted that in the absence of any facts to go upon we are happy and self-satisfied; so that the effect of experience is continually to contract our hopes and aspirations
There are people who live under the delusion that simply because they will it to be so, it will be so.
Don't be lulled into complacency.
But when someone is on a winning horse, and everything looks wonderful, it's very hard as an outsider to persuade them something is wrong.
When I very first started out, I had that arrogance of youth.
They believe that nothing will happen because they have closed their doors.
One has to be foolish or irredeemably stupid to believe that anything good can come to Europe from the land of presumed opportunity.
Some old men, continually praise the time of their youth. In fact, you would almost think that there were no fools in their days, but unluckily they themselves are left as an example.
I live in a fantasy world where I think I'm immune to all disease. I don't get sick and haven't had anything major go wrong.
It is foolish for anyone to be complacent.
My childlike qualities sometimes lead me to jump into projects without thinking of the consequences.
You feel everybody has your best interests in mind, but you come to find out that's not necessarily the case.
A lot of people make the mistake of setting the bar too high.
I was so naive to think once you sign, it's all good, and you are a superstar.
Don't keep reaching for the stars because you'll just look like an idiot stretching that way for no reason.
A fascinating reaction of the human brain when we fail to meet a goal is that it tells us to throw caution to the wind and make things even worse, which ultimately leads to us giving up.
Now I believe I can hear the philosophers protesting that it can only be misery to live in folly, illusion, deception and ignorance, but it isn't -it's human.
