SELF-DECEPTION

Alger, William R.
Every man is his own greatest dupe.

Bailey, Gamaliel
The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one's self. All sin is easy after that.

Demosthenes
Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self, for what we wish we readily believe; but such expectations are often inconsistent with the reality of things.

Franklin, Benjamin
Who has deceived thee so often as thyself?

Greville, Lord
No man was ever so much deceived by another, as by himself.

Helps, Sir Arthur
Many a man has a kind of kaleidoscope, where the broken bits of glass are his own merits and fortunes; and they fall into harmonious arrangements and delight him, often most mischievously, and to his ultimate detriment; but they are a present pleasure.

Home, Henry
The coward reckons himself cautious; the miser thinks himself frugal.

Lambert, Madam de
We cheat ourselves in order to enjoy a quiet conscience, without possessing virtue.

Rochefoucauld, Francois, Duc de la
To be deceived by our enemies or betrayed by our friends is insupportable; yet by ourselves we are often content to be so  treated.

Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper
The greatest of fools is he who imposes on himself, and in his greatest concerns thinks he knows that which he has least studied, and of which he is profoundly ignorant.

Sidney, Sir Philip
It many times falls out, that we deem ourselves much deceived in others, because we first deceived ourselves.

South, Robert
From the beginning of the world to this day there never was any great villainy acted by men but it was in the strength of some great fallacy put upon their minds by a false representation of evil for good, or good for evil.