Noun
a defense of some offensive behavior or some failure to keep a promise etc.
Source: WordNetVirtue is debased by self-justification. Voltaire
Life is not, and death is a dream. Suffering has invented them both as self-justification. Man alone is torn between an unreality and an illusion. Emil Cioran
The truth is, narratives of self-justification burble beneath more of our relationships and endeavors than we would care to admit. Tullian Tchividjian
Self-justification is a treacherous servant. Wellington Mara
Psychoanalysis is an attempt to examine a person's self-justifications. Hence it can be undertaken only with the patient's cooperation and can succeed only when the patient has something to gain by abandoning or modifying his system of self-justification. Thomas Szasz
A man can go from being a lover to being a stranger in three moves flat ... but a woman under the guise of friendship will engage in acts of duplicity which come to light very much later. There are different species of self-justification. Anita Brookner