| The hope that irrational people will act rationally is a perpetual delusion of the level-headed. |
| In life, the impulse toward a simple stripping down to some bare truth is either delusion, hubris, or the reductionist's dust. |
| The rash of strikes on the railways and elsewhere should quickly disabuse them of that delusion. |
| The level of delusion here eclipses that of the most fanatical of religious zealots. |
| So is the related belief that we can direct behavior via culture, a delusion that comforts worrywarts and flatters creators. |
| One is inclined to dismiss all this as product of institutional delusion or bureaucratic make-work. |
