Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self; for what we wish, that we readily believe; but such expectations are often inconsistent with the real state of things.
What we wish, that we readily believe.
It is as easy to unknowingly deceive yourself as it is to deceive others.
To be rich is to give; to give nothing is to be poor; to live is to love; to love nothing is to be dead; to be happy is to devote oneself; to exist only for oneself is to damn oneself, and to exile oneself to hell.
Nothing is more easy than to deceive one's self, as our affections are subtle persuaders.
Plains deceive you; they cause you to think that life is easy! Mountains never deceive you; they teach you the realties! Go to the mountains!
It is as easy to deceive one's self without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without their finding out.
Go to the place where the thing you wish to know is native; your best teacher is there. Where the thing you wish to know is so dominant that you must breathe its very atmosphere, there teaching is moat thorough, and learning is most easy. You acquire a language most readily in the country where it is spoken; you study mineralogy boat among miners; and so with everything else.
One does not deceive oneself about the consequences of one's acts; one deceives oneself about the ease with which one can live with those consequences.
What we wish, we readily believe, and what we ourselves think, we imagine others think also.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done Nothing you can sing that can't be sung. Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game. It's easy. Nothing you can make that can't be made. No one you can save that can't be saved. Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time. It's easy. Nothing you can know that isn't known. Nothing you can see that isn't shown. Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be. It's easy.
It is not only useless, it is harmful, to believe in oneself until one truly knows oneself. And to know oneself means to accept our moments of insanity, of eccentricity, of childishness and blindness.
... in nine out of ten cases the original wish to write is the wish to make oneself felt[ellipsis in source] the non-essential writer never gets past that wish.
It is quite as ignominious to allow oneself to be deceived as to deceive.
It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown.
It is difficult to know oneself, but it isn't easy to paint oneself either.