Rationalizing is the self-exculpation which occurs when we feel ourselves, or our group, accused of misapprehension or error.
Source: In The New Webster's Dictionary of Quotations and Famous Phrases, by Donald Bolander, 1987.
-- James Harvey Robinson, (Jun 29 1863-1936), US historian; He was one of the founders of the new history that broadened historical scholarship in relation to social sciences; wrote The New History, 1912.