Sunday, December 14, 2008 – A Healthy Ego
One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star. ~ G. K. Chesterton
Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called “Ego.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Let’s face it; God has a big ego problem. Why do we always have to worship him? ~ Bill Maher
I like the moment when I break a man’s ego. ~ Bobby Fischer
The nice thing about egotists is that they don’t talk about other people. ~ Lucille S. Harper
The prime purpose of eloquence is to keep other people from talking. ~ Louis Vermeil
Egotist: a person more interested in himself than in me. ~ Ambrose Bierce
People hate me because I am a multifaceted, talented, wealthy, internationally famous genius. ~ Jerry Lewis
Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy – the joy of being Salvador Dalí – and I ask myself in rapture: What wonderful things this Salvador Dalí is going to accomplish today? ~ Salvador Dalí
When I look at myself, I am so beautiful I scream with joy! ~ Maria Montez
If I only had a little humility, I would be perfect. ~ Ted Turner
When science discovers the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to find they are not it. ~ Bernard Baily
Ego is to the true self what a flashlight is to a spotlight. ~ John Bradshaw
Intolerance itself is a form of egoism, and to condemn egoism intolerantly is to share it. ~ George Santayana
It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help. ~ Judith Martin
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. ~ Sir Winston Churchill
Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same. ~ George Bernard Shaw
The man who says he is willing to meet you halfway is usually a poor judge of distance. ~ Laurence J. Peter
I stand by all the misstatements that I’ve made. ~ Dan Quayle
Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity. ~ Frank Leahy
The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, and that one is prepared in the end, to be defeated, and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one’s love upon other human individuals. ~ George Orwell
Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil – or else an absolute ignorance. ~ Graham Greene
Am I alone in my egotism when I say that never does the pale light of dawn filter through the blinds of 52 Tavistock Square but I open my eyes and exclaim, “Good God! Here I am again!” not always with pleasure, often with pain; sometimes in a spasm. ~ Virginia Woolf
I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. ~ Henry David Thoreau
It always seemed strange to me that the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, aquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second. ~ John Steinbeck
Central to the Buddha’s teaching is the doctrine of anatman: “not-self.” This does not deny that the notion of an “I” works in the everyday world. In fact, we need a solid, stable ego to function in society. However, “I” is not real in an ultimate sense. It is a “name”: a fictional construct that bears no correspondence to what is really the case. Because of this disjunction all kinds of problems ensue. Once our minds have constructed the notion of “I,” it becomes our central reference point. We attach to it and identify with it totally. We attempt to advance what appears to be its interests, to defend it against real or apparent threats and menaces. And we look for ego-affirmation at every turn: confirmation that we exist and are valued. The Gordian Knot of preoccupations arising from all this absorbs us exclusively, at times to the point of obsession. This is, however, a narrow and constricted way of being. Though we cannot see it when caught in the convolutions of ego, there is something in us that is larger and deeper: a wholly other way of being. ~ John Snelling, Elements of Buddhism
The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you. ~ Eckhart Tolle
Opinions scattered indiscriminately about leave the mark of egotism. ~ William Strunk, Strunk & White in The Elements of Style
Wear your learning like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out, and strike it, merely to show that you have one. ~ Lord Chesterfield
Just Above Sunset 