Rationalizations Quotes

“Not to be rude, but it was all pointless," I noted from across the room. Four eyes narrowed at me. "What? I said 'not to be rude'. That's like saying 'God bless them' right after you say bad things about someone. It means it doesn't count!”
― Molly Harper, Nice Girls Don't Live Forever

“But the nature of the universe is such that the ends never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end.”
― Aldous Huxley

“Suicide is a confession of failure. And like divorce, it is shrouded in excuses and rationalizations spun endlessly to disguise the simple fact that all one's energy, passion, appetite and ambition have been aborted.”
― A. Alvarez, The Savage God: A Study of Suicide

“Turn back and seek the safety of the shore; tempt not the deep, lest, losing unawares me and yourselves, you come to port no more.”
― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

“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.”
― Nick Hornby, Juliet, Naked

“It has been claimed that Plato was an egalitarian; it has been claimed that he was a totalitarian. It has been claimed that he was the utopian, proposing a universal blueprint for the ideal state; it has been claimed that he was an anti-utopian, demonstrating that all political idealism is folly. It has been claimed that he was a populist, concerned with the best interests of all citizens; it has been claimed he was an elitist with disturbing eugenic tendencies. It has been claimed he was a romantic; it has been claimed that he was a prick. It has been claimed that he was a theorizer, with sweeping metaphysical doctrines; it has been claimed that he was the anti-theorizing skeptic, always intent on unsettling convictions. It has been claimed that he was full of humor and play; it has been claimed that he was as solemn as a sermon limining the torments of the damned. It has been claimed he loved his fellow man; it has been claimed he loves his fellow man. It has been claimed he was a philosopher who used his artistic gifts in the service of philosophy; it has been claimed he was an artist who used philosophy in the service of his art.”
― Rebecca Goldstein, Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

“Since the fall of the human race, we've been alternately telling ourselves that we are good, that if we try hard enough we'll be good enough, or that being or that being good is an impossibility, so we should just give up and have fun.”
― Elyse M. Fitzpatrick, Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus

“You judge the mistakes of others with indignation and distain in a demeaning manner; your mistakes, are littered with rationalizations and excuses, with indignation for those aware. And void of regrets.”
― RJ Intindola – (Gandolfo) – 1989

“Labeling something as impossible is frequently my way of excusing myself from doing something simply because it’s more difficult than I would like it to be.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“In our world today ‘user-error’ seems to turn into ‘user-habit’ with the user in the habit of denying both.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Do I hate the speech? Or do I hate the truth within the speech?”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“I've always believed that we start to die once we start believing the lies we tell ourselves.”
― Paul S Anderson

“Those who constantly make excuses and rationalize, shall be known as; The Excuse.”
― RJ Intindola – (Gandolfo) – 1980

“Through experience you learn to see people not as sellouts and betrayers of moral principles, but as the result of ongoing processes. In the past I attacked labor leaders who started out lean, hungry, and idealistic and as they succeeded became fat-bellied, fat-headed, and cynical. I now see these people as having moved from the Have-Not's to the Have's, and that morality is largely a rationalization of the point you happen to occupy in the power pattern at a given time. If you're a Have-Not you're out to get, and your morality is an appeal to a law higher than man-made laws--the noblest ideals of justice and equality. When you become a Have then you are out to keep and your morality is one of law, order, and the rights of property over other rights.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals