At the most basic level, self-deception is fooling ourselves into believing something that is false -- or -- not believing something that is true.

One major cost of self-deception is that we use painful life experiences to justify being non-ideal versions of ourselves.

We would all benefit by shifting our focus from seeing pain as bad to seeing pain as motivation to change.

The truth is that our self-deceptive lies range from seemingly tiny untruths to massive life-altering falsehoods about reality.

I cannot overemphasize the impact our childhood has on our ability to be honest because we live out what we learned as children in our adult relationships.

Living through difficult life circumstances in not an excuse for passing trauma onto someone else.

When you are not aware that you are bringing old learning to your current relationships, you will want to lie about where it is coming from.

We lie to reflect the aspirational goals that we unconsciously know we will not uphold.

Perhaps the most tragic way that self-deception harms us is that we start believing our lies and we teach them to others.

In fact, lying to ourselves may be the most dangerous thing in the world because we live our truth whether we are honest about it or not.

It is actually a good survival strategy to manipulate twist, and reorganize the truth in a way that is more consistent with what we can psychologically tolerate.

We all have some value but our net value differs.

You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.

Sara?” Blake’s voice is scorching and burns right through me.“Yes, sir?” “Lock the door and get over my knee. Now.

There's no regrets for me.

We have to invest in our kids, we have to invest in our communities, we have to create jobs. We have to make certain that kids are not dropping out of school and hanging out on street corners.

When millions applaud you seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; and when they disapprove you, what good.

Photography is one of the most authentic and integral modes of expression possible in this world in which we live.

As co-chair of the Iraqi Women's Caucus in the House, I've enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with and hear from Iraqi women elected to serve in the new National Assembly.

... not talking about things she doesn't understand to people who do or about things she does to people who don't.

[Gulliver was soon being read] "from the cabinet council to the nursery".