#ego

What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To throw away self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.

He who shines his own light doesn't shine. He who praises his own work doesn't achieve.

A truly good man is not aware of his goodness, and therefore is good. A foolish man tries to be good, and therefore is not.

Our vanity is hardest to wound precisely when our pride has just been injured.

The primary illusion is that I am a separate, lonely center of consciousness and action, placed in a world that is not me.

Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.

The sensation of 'I' is not in fact separate from the experience of 'now'.

Midlife is the time to let go of an overdominant ego and to contemplate the deeper significance of human existence.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.

Self-love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world.

Virtues lose themselves in self-interest, as streams lose themselves in the sea.

Pride has a greater share than goodness of heart in our reprimands to those who commit faults.

We reprimand others not so much to correct their errors as to persuade them that we are exempt from them.

We would rather speak ill of ourselves than not speak of ourselves at all.

Flattery is a counterfeit currency which only circulates through our vanity.

We are never so easily deceived as when we think we are deceiving others.

There is more self-love than love in jealousy.

We always love those who admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.

To love truth with all one's soul requires having unmasked every comforting lie of the ego.

The spiritual horizon widens as the ego recedes.

Nothing clogs the mind like pride.

When ego dies, truth is born.

When you listen with total attention, there is no listener.

When you cease to defend yourself, you become invulnerable.

Mind is a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts arise because there is the thinker. The thinker is the ego.

All troubles belong to the ego; the Self is ever free.

True surrender is the eradication of the ego.

Let the ego surrender to the silent presence within.

The ego is like a ghost; examine it closely and it disappears.