Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.

The intention of never deceiving often exposes us to deception.

To hide our eyes to make others believe we are hiding tears.

One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.

We are nothing if not thorough in our deception of others.

We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love — first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part.

For we are all in some way or other kept asunder by our secrets; and instead of seeking through confession to bridge the abysses that separate us from one another, we choose the easy by-way of deceptive opinions and illusions.

We always have a tendency to see those things that do not exist and to be blind to the great lessons that are right there before our eyes.

— The most subtle of our acts is to simulate blindness for snares that we know are set for us. We are never so easily deceived as when trying to deceive.

It appears that we all labour under delusions.

Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate, or despise, serves to defeat us in the end.

We deceive ourselves to be the same for our whole life, instead we are other every moment.

Human beings seem to have an almost unlimited capacity to deceive themselves, and to deceive themselves into taking their own lies for truth.