Don't know why, but I've often thought about lying.
Not a specific act, but the concept itself. In particular, one question has percolated in my head over the years; What is the most effective kind of lie.
I've come up with many answers, lies that contain a hint of truth, lies that are mostly true, lies that are 100% true, but imply falsehood... (you may notice a pattern, lol)
All good answers, but there's one particular genre of lie that beats them all:
The lie you tell yourself.
Think about it folks, who can lie to you more effectively, more enticingly, who knows what you want to hear to believe something better than you yourself?
Obviously self deception is dangerous in and of itself, but once you've convinced yourself of a falsehood, it becomes easier to convince others, because the sincerity of your words compels others to believe what you say is true.
Something to chew on.
To deceive yourself you need to be at least subconsciously aware of the deception. A child that has been told by its parent that Santa is real, is it deceiving itself? No. It just doesn't know any better. Is an individual who was taught to believe in God and truly does so deceiving themselves? Again, no. Otherwise any belief or even feeling/instinct you have that you can't 100% verify would be a self-deception.
It is a pretty important distinction. Deception and lies are deliberate efforts. Not necessarily entirely consciously deliberate but at least subconsciously. If you don't know any better you can't deceive yourself.
If you know or feel that something is wrong, if you blame others for things you yourself are to blame because you're scared of the consequences or it simply hurts too much to take responsibility then you are deceiving yourself. For example individuals who blame the opposite gender for their own poor choices. I don't constantly choose a terrible partner, no it's just that all men/women are terrible.