Source: The Social History of Art, Volume IV. Naturalism, impressionism, the film age, 1999, Chapter 1. Naturalism and Impressionism
“The instinct for self-deception in human beings makes them try to banish from their minds dangers of which at bottom they are perfectly aware by declaring them non-existent.”
Beware of Pity (1939)
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Stefan Zweig 106
Austrian writer 1881–1942Related quotes
“When human beings banish God from the world, they make Gods of themselves.”
Other Quotes

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2002), p.112

“Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred.”
Source: Cosmos (1980), p. 135
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter III, Part 9, The Embrarras De Richesses, p. 150

quote from 1976
1945 - 1970
Source: Tàpies, Werke auf Papier 1943 – 2003, Achim Sommer, Kunsthalle Emden, Altana 2004, p. 25

Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845)
Context: What I mean by the Muse is that unimpeded clearness of the intuitive powers, which a perfectly truthful adherence to every admonition of the higher instincts would bring to a finely organized human being. It may appear as prophecy or as poesy. … and should these faculties have free play, I believe they will open new, deeper and purer sources of joyous inspiration than have as yet refreshed the earth.
Let us be wise, and not impede the soul. Let her work as she will. Let us have one creative energy, one incessant revelation. Let it take what form it will, and let us not bind it by the past to man or woman, black or white.

André Malraux, Préface du Temps du mépris (1935), Malraux citations sur www. fondationandremalraux. org http://fondationandremalraux.org/index.php/citations/

Alternate translation: Not one of our mortal gauges is suitable for evaluating non-existence, for making judgments about that which is not a person.
Ни одна наша смертная мерка не годится для суждения о небытии, о том, что не есть человек.
Note-Book of Anton Chekhov (1921)