Know Yourself and Your Enemy And You Cannot Lose!
Great words from a great ideology but is it hard to know yourself if you are not completely honest with yourself? I think so...
Some people in a lot of ways are not open-minded, not modest and not willing to see a situation from another perspective. From my experience, if you find yourself in that kind of situation it is not worth engaging any further. If you want my advice give up as soon as you can, you will not get anywhere.
Why Lie To Yourself Though?
And Whats To Gain?
This is just speculation but I think in some ways telling yourself what you want to hear can be comforting. Also if a person doesn't want to deal with something they could be likely to avoid it or justify avoiding it by telling themselves what they want to hear.