Men and women.

"...we're at one of those points where the difference between men and women becomes evident."

"What difference?" he asked.

"The capacity of self-deceit," she said, but corrected herself and said, "Or rather, the things about which we choose to deceive ourselves."

"Like what?" he asked, striving for neutrality.

"Men deceive themselves about what they do themselves, but women choose to deceive themselves about what other people do."

"Men, presumably?" he asked.

"Yes."

If she had been a chemist reading the periodic table of the elements, she could not have sounded more certain.

...A long time passed in silence, during which he considered what she had said. "Sounds like men get a better deal," he finally replied.

"When don't they?"

- Donna Leon, A Sea of Trouble