Self-justification is a treacherous servant.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Reason is the servant of instinct.
Self-deception is so far from impossible that it is one of the most ordinary phenomena with which we are acquainted. Nothing is more usual than for a man to impute his actions to honorable motives when it is nearly demonstrable that they flowed from some corrupt and contemptible force.
No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expedience.
To take refuge with an inferior is to betray one's self.
The truth is, narratives of self-justification burble beneath more of our relationships and endeavors than we would care to admit.
Virtuous people often revenge themselves for the constraints to which they submit by the boredom which they inspire.
The petty man is eager to make boasts, yet desires that others should believe in him. He enthusiastically engages in deception, yet wants others to have affection for him. He conducts himself like an animal, yet wants others to think well of him.
There's something incredibly primal about facing something treacherous but doing it anyway.
Rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that somewhere, in some way, you are justified.
The sovereign being is burdened with a servitude that crushes him, and the condition of free men is deliberate servility.