deception on Illusion

The greatest of all illusions is the illusion of familiarity.

We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.

One of the most dangerous driving situations is when it is raining at night. Not only are the streets slippery and visibility obscured by water on the windshield, but wet streets can reflect light fro...

At some point in childhood we all make the powerful discovery that we can manipulate the truth about ourselves.

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

You decide to buy a certain kind of car, and suddenly you see it everywhere. A friend recommends an obscure movie to you, and by the end of the week, three more people have mentioned it. You find out ...

We will often stop at nothing to avoid cognitive dissonance. We will twist logic, bend reason, conveniently forget facts, invent new stories, even destroy relationships—all in the name of preserving o...

Lord of all, you are in control. We live under the illusion that we have control, yet all life is sustained by you. We live for our own purposes, we try to become gods over our own lives. We unjustly ...

Researchers at the University of London concluded that “a substantial majority of individuals believe themselves to be morally superior to the average person” and that this illusion of ours is “unique...

The art of pleasing is the art of deception.

It is not only old and early impressions that deceive us; the charms of novelty have the same power.

The ear is sometimes deceived in hearing sounds, which are only imaginary; the eye, too, sees things in motion, which in reality are at rest; the sense of smell alone is not deceived.

The simple truth of our being gets lost in the metanarratives we spin. We become the fictions we live. Consequently, our way of being in the world is so false and unnatural that our presence is thorou...

Our race would not have gotten far, Had we not learned to bluff it out And look more certain than we are Of what our motion is about.

Our propensity to deceive ourselves about our place and purpose makes it so very difficult to see the truth of our lives, to understand the meaning of our moment in history and our responsibility to i...

Our goodness is our biggest self-delusion, and all of us seem to be living with it.

[The flattery of others] is narcotic and addictive. It preys on two desperate and inescapable desires; to be thought well of by others and to think well of ourselves … We desire and need approbation s...

The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.

My experience is what I agree to attend to.

When we observe evil, sinful behavior from a distance, the inclination is simply to see people as acting with malicious intent. We assume they are “bad people.” But often the motivations that lead to ...

It’s important, then, to have our eyes open to this deception. How is it that so many modern promises sound true but in the end lead to our deception, or even our destruction? A long, long time ago, t...

Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.

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

In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

He wonders if he’s lying. If he is, he is hung in the middle of nowhere, and the thought hollows him.

We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves.

We may find it hard to believe Jeremiah’s words that the heart is “deceitful above all things.” We would rather look outward and think, Yes, others may be quite foolish and misguided. But I have a ...

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.

The most insidious deception in human history is the lie that says, “God is against you.”

Most of us recognize that self-deception hampers our ability to grow and live healthy lives. The Arbinger Institute takes it a bit further in their best-selling book Leadership and Self-Deception ...