{"quotes":[{"text":"We all know dogmatists who are more concerned about holding their opinions than about investigating their truth. ... If they are mistaken, they will never discover it; they have condemned themselves to perpetual error. Human beings (including myself) sometimes use their beliefs for wish-fulfillment. Too often we believe what we want to be true.","author":"David L. Wolfe","tags":["belief","dogma","self-delusion","wishful-thinking"],"id":15871,"author_id":"David+L.+Wolfe"},{"text":"One of the greatest of human follies is that we think we know ourselves so well, that we know how we would act under any conditions, that we would under any circumstance 'do the right thing.' Well, as many have discovered, you don't really know what you'll do in the dark till the lights go out.","author":"James Carlos Blake","tags":["morality","self-delusion","self-knowledge"],"id":21950,"author_id":"James+Carlos+Blake"},{"text":"Now there was no sign of any foul weather, but when one wishes to do a thing . . . One finds no lack of reasons for the doing.","author":"Howard Pyle","tags":["human-nature","procrastination","self-delusion"],"id":36903,"author_id":"Howard+Pyle"},{"text":"One paper boasted that its subscription and advertising numbers proved that America did not need the social change it rival paper advocated.","author":"Harold Holzer","tags":["bias","conventional-wisdom","self-confidence","self-delusion"],"id":63989,"author_id":"Harold+Holzer"},{"text":"I am in good company, simply following those in front of me and knowing others are following behind. We are on our way up a narrow staircase. The bannister is a thick rope suggesting safety. The stairs go around and around inside a church tower; or perhaps it is a minaret? The whorls of the staircase grow narrower and narrower, but as there are so many people behind there is no longer any possibility of turning around or even stopping. The pressure from behind foeces me on. The staircase suddenly stops at a garbage chute in the wall. When I open the hatch and squeeze my way through the hole, I find myself on the outside of the tower. The rope has dissappeared. It is totally dark. I cling on to the slippery, icy wall of the tower while vainly trying to find a foothold in the emptiness.","author":"Sven Lindqvist","tags":["denial","group-think","ignorance","psychology","self-delusion"],"id":69699,"author_id":"Sven+Lindqvist"},{"text":"I thought these grapes were ripe, but I see now they are quite sour.","author":"Aesop","tags":["attitude","defeat","self-delusion"],"id":87498,"author_id":"Aesop"},{"text":"Mom has the Touch. She knows what flowers go with what occasions, what hors d'oeuvres work with what people. She believes passionately in the power of food to heal, restore, and stimulate relationships, and she has built a following of loyal customers who really hope she's right. If she's wrong, says Sonia, no one wants to know.","author":"Joan Bauer","tags":["bakery","belief","business","catering","food","humor","relationships","self-delusion","that-special-something"],"id":111273,"author_id":"Joan+Bauer"},{"text":"The most common lie you will ever tell God is your opportunity to do the right thing was taken from you.","author":"Shannon L. Alder","tags":["community","god","humanity","integrity","lies-we-tell-ourselves","lost","morals","respecting-others","self-delusion","self-respect","spirituatlity","values"],"id":124529,"author_id":"Shannon+L.+Alder"},{"text":"Joe is never sure whether they're mad or just alarmingly and uncompromisingly incapable of self-delusion.","author":"Nick Harkaway","tags":["madness","self-delusion"],"id":154806,"author_id":"Nick+Harkaway"},{"text":"Humans see what they want to see.","author":"Rick Riordan","tags":["humanity","humans","mankind","perception","self-delusion","willful-ignorance"],"id":156228,"author_id":"Rick+Riordan"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":31,"pages":4,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}