Examples of self-justifying in a Sentence
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Yet in the years after World War II, many Germans were in varying degrees unrepentant, nationalistic or self-justifying.
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Gary J. Bass, New York Times, 22 Feb. 2025
Activism was neither vengeful nor self-justifying; saving other people’s children was simply the best means of surviving one’s own loss.
—Andrew Solomon, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2024
Goldman is like a wily, self-justifying Philip Roth invention that asserts a new kind of J’accuse by shaming the court and invoking the pressure of Jewish history.
—Armond White, National Review, 6 Sep. 2024
Seen in light of Putin’s evolving style of rule at home, however, the assault on Ukraine fits into an emerging pattern—one that features anti-Western nationalism; angry, self-justifying speeches; and increasingly open uses of force.
—Daniel Treisman, Foreign Affairs, 6 Apr. 2022
The fiction was a flimsy dramatic framework for his voice, which, in his recent movies, has become strained, vain, confined as if to an official self-promotional, self-justifying role.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2024
Traditionalists don’t bother; the study of Torah is self-justifying.
—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 15 Feb. 2024
The Chinese Communists were outraged that Tojo and other defendants had been allowed to make self-justifying speeches in court and to be defended by able U.S. lawyers.
—Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2023
And so climate-minded consumers and the mining industry are locked in a self-justifying embrace.
—Seyward Darby, Longreads, 11 July 2023
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Gary J. Bass, New York Times, 22 Feb. 2025
Activism was neither vengeful nor self-justifying; saving other people’s children was simply the best means of surviving one’s own loss.
—Andrew Solomon, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2024
Goldman is like a wily, self-justifying Philip Roth invention that asserts a new kind of J’accuse by shaming the court and invoking the pressure of Jewish history.
—Armond White, National Review, 6 Sep. 2024
Seen in light of Putin’s evolving style of rule at home, however, the assault on Ukraine fits into an emerging pattern—one that features anti-Western nationalism; angry, self-justifying speeches; and increasingly open uses of force.
—Daniel Treisman, Foreign Affairs, 6 Apr. 2022
The fiction was a flimsy dramatic framework for his voice, which, in his recent movies, has become strained, vain, confined as if to an official self-promotional, self-justifying role.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2024
Traditionalists don’t bother; the study of Torah is self-justifying.
—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 15 Feb. 2024
The Chinese Communists were outraged that Tojo and other defendants had been allowed to make self-justifying speeches in court and to be defended by able U.S. lawyers.
—Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2023
And so climate-minded consumers and the mining industry are locked in a self-justifying embrace.
—Seyward Darby, Longreads, 11 July 2023
Cite this Entry
“Self-justifying.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self-justifying. Accessed 4 Apr. 2025.
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