Men are nearly always willing to believe what they wish

Everyone believes very easily whatever he fears or desires.

The majority of men prefer delusion to truth. It soothes. It is easy to grasp.

That which makes us believe so easily that others have defects is that we all so easily believe what we wish.

A credulous mind . . . finds most delight in believing
strange things, and the stranger they are the easier they pass
with him; but never regards those that are plain and
feasible, for every man can believe such.

Forgiving men is so much easier than forgiving women.

Demosthenes noted, “What a man wishes, he will believe.” And

Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.

On a higher level we find fictions that men eagerly believe, regardless of the evidence, because they gratify some wish.

It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great secret in him.

Most men are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Men think they may justly do that for which they have a precedent.

Some men are just as sure of the truth of their opinions as are others of what they know.

The majority of men prefer delusion to truth. It soothes. It is easy to grasp. Above all, it fits more snugly than the truth into a universe of false appearances — of complex and irrational phenomena, defectively grasped.