Self Justification Quotes
Quotes tagged as "self-justification"
Showing 1-16 of 16

“Psychobabble attempts to redefine the entire English language just to make a correct statement incorrect. Psychology is the study of why someone would try to do this.”
― Killosophy
― Killosophy

“What man ain't the honestest cove in his own eyes?" Grote's round face is a bronze moon in the dark. "'Tain't good intentions what paves the road to hell: it's self-justifyin's.”
― The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
― The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

“Bonhoeffer examined and dismissed a number of approaches to dealing with evil. "Reasonable people," he said, think that "with a little reason, they can pull back together a structure that has come apart at the joints." Then there are the ethical "fanatics" who "believe that they can face the power of evil with the purity of their will and their principles." Men of"conscience" become overwhelmed because the "countless respectable and seductive disguises and masks in which evil approaches them make their conscience anxious and unsure until they finally content themselves with an assuaged conscience instead of a good conscience." They must "deceive their own conscience in order not to despair." Finally there are some who retreat to a "private virtuousness. Such people neither steal, nor murder,nor commit adultery, but do good according to their abilities. but... they must close their eyes and ears to the injustice around them. Only at the cost of self-deception can they keep their private blamelessness clean from the stains of responsible action in the world. In all that they do, what they fail to do will not let them rest.”
― Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
― Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

“Don鈥檛 I know by now that folk see their sins in the way they choose? There鈥檚 always a reason as to why selfishness is not really selfish and crimes are honest and waiting safely by while somefolk else is killed is really the more courageous choice.”
― Sin Eater
― Sin Eater

“Her anger said, as anger is apt to say, that God was with her鈥 that all heaven, though it were crowded with spirits watching them, must be on her side.”
― Middlemarch
― Middlemarch

“Does any one suppose that private prayer is necessarily candid鈥攏ecessarily goes to the roots of action? Private prayer is inaudible speech, and speech is representative: who can represent himself just as he is, even in his own reflections?”
― Middlemarch
― Middlemarch

“Self-justification, that was the danger-- the exhilerating exercise of explaining why my ways are God's ways after all.”
― Approaching Zion
― Approaching Zion
“Lyndon Johnson was a master of self-justification. According to his biographer Robert Caro, when Johnson came to believe in something, he would believe in it 鈥渢otally, with absolute conviction, regardless of previous beliefs, or of the facts in the matter.鈥 George Reedy, one of Johnson鈥檚 aides, said that he 鈥渉ad a remarkable capacity to convince himself that he held the principles he should hold at any given time, and there was something charming about the air of injured innocence with which he would treat anyone who brought forth evidence that he had held other views in the past. It was not an act鈥 He had a fantastic capacity to persuade himself that the 鈥榯ruth鈥 which was convenient for the present was the truth and anything that conflicted with it was the prevarication of enemies. He literally willed what was in his mind to become reality.鈥 Although Johnson鈥檚 supporters found this to be a rather charming aspect of the man鈥檚 character, it might well have been one of the major reasons that Johnson could not extricate the country from the quagmire of Vietnam. A president who justifies his actions only to the public might be induced to change them. A president who has justified his actions to himself, believing that he has the truth, becomes impervious to self-correction.”
―
―

“She had to defend him in order to defend herself. That was why people were so prickly about their partners, even their ex-partners. To admit that Duncan wasn't up to much was to own up publicly to the terrible waste of time, and terrible lapses in judgment and taste. She had stuck up for Spandau Ballet in just the same way at school, even after she had stopped liking them.”
― Juliet, Naked
― Juliet, Naked

“Edward:
But I'm obsessed by the thought of my own significance.
Rielly:
Precisely. And I could make you feel important,
And you would imagine it a marvelous cure; And you would go on, doing such amount of mischief
As lay within your power -- until you came to grief.
Half of the harm that is done in this world
Is due to people who want to feel important.
They don't mean to do harm--but the harm does not interest them
Or they do not see it, or they justify it
Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle
To think well of themselves.”
― The Cocktail Party
But I'm obsessed by the thought of my own significance.
Rielly:
Precisely. And I could make you feel important,
And you would imagine it a marvelous cure; And you would go on, doing such amount of mischief
As lay within your power -- until you came to grief.
Half of the harm that is done in this world
Is due to people who want to feel important.
They don't mean to do harm--but the harm does not interest them
Or they do not see it, or they justify it
Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle
To think well of themselves.”
― The Cocktail Party
“I suppose this anger and manipulation was my pseudo-conscious method of giving the system, and all it entailed, the big fat birdie finger. What I failed to realize was that my inward disposition of fuming vindictiveness and self-justification only caused me to rob myself. I was giving myself the middle finger, not them.”
― Pursued: God鈥檚 relentless pursuit and a drug addict鈥檚 journey to finding purpose
― Pursued: God鈥檚 relentless pursuit and a drug addict鈥檚 journey to finding purpose
All Quotes
|
My Quotes
|
Add A Quote
Browse By Tag
- Love Quotes 99k
- Life Quotes 78k
- Inspirational Quotes 74k
- Humor Quotes 43.5k
- Philosophy Quotes 30.5k
- Inspirational Quotes Quotes 28k
- God Quotes 26.5k
- Truth Quotes 24k
- Wisdom Quotes 24k
- Romance Quotes 23.5k
- Poetry Quotes 22.5k
- Life Lessons Quotes 21.5k
- Death Quotes 20k
- Quotes Quotes 19.5k
- Happiness Quotes 19k
- Hope Quotes 18k
- Faith Quotes 18k
- Inspiration Quotes 17k
- Spirituality Quotes 15.5k
- Motivational Quotes 15k
- Religion Quotes 15k
- Relationships Quotes 15k
- Writing Quotes 14.5k
- Life Quotes Quotes 14.5k
- Love Quotes Quotes 14.5k
- Success Quotes 13.5k
- Motivation Quotes 13k
- Time Quotes 12.5k
- Science Quotes 12k
- Motivational Quotes Quotes 11.5k