I would like to be able to say like Montaigne: man fools himself; for this is exactly right. Yes, man no doubt fools himself; he is his own dupe. He takes the sophisms of his naturally rebellious heart [i](alas, nothing is more certain) for real doubts born in his understanding. If sometimes superstition believes in belief, as it has been reproached for doing, pride believes in disbelief. It is always man who fools himself, but the second case is much worse than the first. [/i]

[...] two errors clearly elucidated: the error of pride that refuses evidence to justify its own guilty objections; and the error of virtue, which lets itself be seduced by the desire to reinforce one truth, even at the expense of another. But there is yet a third error that must not be passed over in silence - it is that this crowd of men who never stop talking about the successes of crime, without knowing what happiness and misfortune really are.

- Joseph De Maistre, St Petersburg Dialogues