Démosthenés (-384–-322 BC) ancient greek statesman and orator
Third Olynthiac http://books.google.com/books?id=n4INAAAAYAAJ&q=&quot;the+easiest+thing+in+the+world+is+self-deceit+for+every+man+believes+what+he+wishes+though+the+reality+is+often+different&quot;&pg=PA57#v=onepage, section 19 (349 BC), as translated by Charles Rann Kennedy (1852) <br class="br">Variants: <br class="br">A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true. <br class="br">As quoted in The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations (1987) by Robert Andrews, p. 255 <br class="br">There is nothing easier than self-delusion. Since what man desires, is the first thing he believes.