ELMIRE: No, amorous men are gullible. Their conceit
So blinds them that they’re never hard to cheat.[Non; on est aisément dupé par ce qu’on aime.
Et l’amour-propre engage à se tromper soi-même.]Molière (1622-1673) French playwright, actor [stage name for Jean-Baptiste Poquelin]
Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite [Le Tartuffe, ou L’Imposteur], Act 4, sc. 3 (1669) [tr. Wilbur (1963)]
(Source)
When her maid is concerned that Tartuffe will see through Elmire's stratagem.
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:No, People are easily Dup'd by what they love, and Self-love helps 'em to deceive themselves.
[tr. Clitandre (1672)]No; people are easily duped by those whom they love, and conceit is apt to deceive itself.
[tr. Van Laun (1876)]No, we are easily duped by those we love, and we deceive ourselves through our own conceit.
[tr. Wall (1879)]No, people are easily duped by what they like; and self-love helps them to deceive themselves.
[tr. Mathew (1890), 4.2]No; people are easily duped by those whom they love. Self-love leads the way to self-deceit.
[tr. Waller (1903)]Oh no! A lover's never hard to cheat,
And self-conceit leads straight to self-deceit.
[tr. Page (1909)]No, one is easily fooled by one's belovèd,
And self-conceit will end in self-deception.
[tr. Bishop (1957)]Oh, no! A lover is not hard to cheat,
And self-deception springs from self-conceit.
[tr. Frame (1967)]He loves me, and he's also vain,
That double drug will dull his brain.
[tr. Bolt (2002)]No, it's easy to be fooled by what we want; our vanity is always ready to betray us.
[tr. Steiner (2008)]We long to be fooled by the one we love,
And pride lends a hand in its own downfall.
[tr. Campbell (2013)]
Quotations about:
fooling yourself
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
This is always the danger with propaganda, that it becomes at last more credible to its disseminators than to its targets.
Garry Wills (b. 1934) American author, journalist, historian
The Kennedy Imprisonment: A Meditation on Power, ch. 18 (1981)
(Source)
Referring to US government efforts in the early 60s to paint Castro's regime in Cuba as weak, eventually leading to the US government itself thinking the regime could be easily toppled.
