You know, when you're a journalist, you truly delude yourself that you are writing the truth, and I hear journalists talk about “the truth, the truth, the truth.”
I mean, people have been thinking since ancient times about the question of how can we be sure that we are not dreaming or that there is not like a demon deluding us into believing that there is an external world.
“For almost a century, the UK has deluded herself, first into believing that the days of global dominance will return, then into thinking that the symptoms of decline can be relatively easily tackled.”
How could Hagrid, even with his immense capacity to delude himself that fanged monsters were loveably harmless, fool himself that Grawp would ever be fit to mix with humans?
He deluded himself into thinking that the grapes were sour and the chipmunks immoral, and by deluding himself, he blocked himself from the solution to his own problem.
He knew that he was deluding her — wished, in the very moment of farewell, to make her believe that he gave her the whole price of her heart, and knew that he had spent it half before.
And I, and I think, but I think to your point, it's, it's very easy to delude myself into thinking that I'm such a brave guy for going and running a 5k.
It is not enough that I have been deluded and disgraced by having him here, —the son of one of my village peasants, —but now I am to make him my son-in-law!
By this time he would approximate to a man's full judgment, and that painful aspect of her as one who had deluded his raw immaturity would have passed for ever.
But Gracie is clearly deluding herself, and it doesn't take long for Elizabeth's presence to drive a wedge between the couple as old, unresolved issues rise to the surface.