“Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.”

“Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.”

“philosophers have noted that people who habitually deceivefinally fall for their own deceptions. This is the well-knownphenomenon that confidence artists appeal to the willingness oftheir victims to deceive both themselves and others in one andthe same act: The victims are encouraged to deceivethemselves into thinking that they deceive only others whileignoring their own greed and the immorality of the way theychoose to satisfy it. To this Russell added that the same holdstrue for all self -deception:”

“The power of self deception is great in the case of all men, but I incline to think that it is greatest in the case of a popular official such as a Bishop, who never hears anything but his own voice, and the syncophantic acclamations which it evokes.”

“Men impose deception on women and punish them for being deceived, force them down to the lowest level and punish them for falling so low, bind them in marriage and then chastise them with menial service for life, or insults, or blows.”

“Had it taken her this long to discover that she lacked some simple mental trick that everyone else had, a mechanism so ordinary that no one ever mentioned it, an immediate sensual connection to people and events, and to her own needs and desires? All these years she had lived in isolation within herself and, strangely, from herself, never wanting or daring to look back.”