Self Centeredness Quotes

To be politically activated is to dare to care about the happiness of others and that is just about the most important activity anyone can be involved in at this time, because it changes a person - it lifts them from normal self-centeredness to a state of other centeredness. That is a good thing because it expands our perception of self. This expansion of consciousness leads to enlightenment, which is the meaning of yoga. ~ Sharon Gannon

She would be one of those who kneel to their own shadows till feet grow on their knees; then go down on their hands till their hands grow into feet; then lay their faces on the ground till they grow into snouts; when at last they are a hideous sort of lizards, each of which believes himself the best, wisest, and loveliest being in the world, yea, the very centre of the universe. And so they run about for ever looking for their own shadows that they may worship them, and miserable because they cannot find them, being themselves too near the ground to have any shadows; and what becomes of them at last, there is but one who knows. ~ George MacDonald

Asceticism is an antidote to the poison of self-centeredness common in our culture, which teaches us that satisfying our own desires is the key to the good life. The ascetic knows that true happiness can be found only by living in harmony with the will of God, and ascetical practices train body and soul to put God above self. ~ Rob Dreher

Failure to recognize one's own absolute significance is equivalent to a denial of human worth; this is a basic error and the origin of all unbelief. If one is so faint-hearted that he is powerless even to believe in himself, how can he believe in anything else? The basic falsehood and evil of egoism lie not in this absolute self-consciousness and self-evaluation of the subject, but in the fact that, ascribing to himself in all justice an absolute significance, he unjustly refuses to others this same significance. Recognizing himself as a centre of life (which as a matter of fact he is), he relegates others to the circumference of his own being and leaves them only an external and relative value. ~ Vladimir S. Soloviev

Some people coddle their own afflictions the way others spoil small pedigreed dogs with cans of pate. ~ Lionel Shriver

The splendid wooden mosque - which you can find if you search - nobody would think of showing you, being less aware of what they have than what they lack. They lack technology: we want to get out of the impasse into which too much technology has led us, our sensibilities saturated to the nth degree with Information and a Culture of distractions. We're counting on their formulae to revive us; they're counting on ours to live. Our paths cross without mutual understanding, and sometimes the traveler gets impatient, but there is a great deal of self-centeredness in such impatience. ~ Nicolas Bouvier

It is a poore Center of a Mans Actions, Himselfe. ~ Francis Bacon

white middle-upper class guys in highly educated families have a unique burden placed on us to be the hero of every story that we tell. I don't think it's merely that we're self-centered and arrogant, but that we feel like we're supposed to be in charge, and if we're not the hero of the story, we've somehow failed in our life duty.group ~ Morgan Guyton

Pride is nothing more than us highlighting us. ~ Kevin Thoman

There must be love, and understanding, to betray. Most men haven't the wit or the honor for betrayal: not to know it when they see it; not the stomach to apprehend it as they do it. Most men, blind and dumb in their self-centeredness, don't betray: they merely disappoint. ~ Janet Morris

We are unlikely to cease making gods or inventing ceremonies to please them for as long as we are afraid of death, or of the dark, and for as long as we persist in self-centeredness. That could be a lengthy stretch of time. However, it is just as certain that we shall continue to cast a skeptical and ironic and even witty eye on what we have ourselves invented. If religion is innate in us, then so is our doubt of it and our contempt for our own weakness. ~ Christopher Hitchens

It's the essence of a degenerating mind periodically, to lose all sense of continuous self, and therefore any regard for what others think of your lack of continuity. ~ Ian McEwan

Introspection is self-improvement and therefore introspection is self-centeredness. Awareness is not self-improvement. On the contrary, it is the ending of the self, of the "I," with all its peculiar idiosyncrasies, memories, demands, and pursuits. In introspection there is identification and condemnation. In awareness there is no condemnation or identification; therefore, there is no self-improvement. There is a vast difference between the two. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Nobody questions the importance of knowing what happens outside, but such knowledge should be preceded by knowing what happens inside. Generally, benchmarking will not help resolve incorrectly formulated questions or questions that are misdirected. Externalism can harm human capital management as much as self-centeredness can. An appropriate balance between looking outside and knowing the inside seems to be the obvious solution to this crisis. ~ Jac Fitz-Enz

The love for stories is sometimes portrayed as a self-centered, individualistic concern. But if story-grip stems primarily from an interest in other lives, then those who love stories will be the least egocentric. They know that there are too many other human paths that are equally or more interesting. Perhaps, then, a distaste for fiction is a sign of self-centeredness. ~ Douglas M. Jones III

The most self-absorbed people display an ironic pension for the smallest minds and the largest mouths. ~ Aaron W. Matthews

So much of the world's suffering results from the sinful action or inaction of ourselves and others. For example, people look at a famine and wonder where God is, but the world produces enough food for each person to have 3,000 calories a day. It's our own irresponsibility and self-centeredness that prevents people from getting fed. ~ Lee Strobel

Self-centeredness will bring on the destruction of our world. National pride separates people. All people need the same thing. When you really get down to it, you'll find that all people need good food, clean water, clean air, and a decent environment, meaning education as to how to relate to one another and to avoid conflict, how to accept the differences where different people draw different conclusions. ~ Jacque Fresco

We are molding Jesus into our image. He's beginning to look a lot like us because, after all, that is who we are most comfortable with. The danger now is when we gather in our church buildings to sing, and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead, we may be worshiping ourselves. ~ David Platt

How can one ever do anything nobly Christian, living among people with such petty thoughts? ~ George Eliot

If you are anything like me, you do a lot of listening to yourself everyday. ~ C.J. Mahaney

There is nothing glorious in the death of a soldier - it's only a disgusting reminder of our petty and primitive self-centeredness, that keeps separating us from our own kind, simply because of some illusory borders created by illusory governments. ~ Abhijit Naskar

Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing.

The central feature of pride is enmity – enmity towards God and enmity toward our fellowmen.
~ Ezra Taft Benson

When we're constantly thinking about ourselves, our world shrinks. ~ Seth Adam Smith

I think we've become a TV culture where we forget the live performer in front of us can see us. I think there is a self-centeredness that happens. There's nothing more important than what you are doing in that moment. So, unless it's an emergency, put your phone away. ~ Laura Benanti

The faceless, sexless, raceless proletariat. The faceless, raceless, classless category of "all women". Both creations of white Western self-centeredness. -Notes Toward a Politics of Location. ~ Adrienne Rich

Immaturity means self-centeredness, inability to compromise, to rise above hurt feelings, to postpone immediate pleasures in favor of future benefits, or to do unpleasant chores when they need to be done. ~ Arnold J. Toynbee

Don't wait for some miracle to be performed on you from without, lifting you above your fears and doubts and self-centeredness. You help God from within by turning in outgoing love to others, and miraculously your fears and doubts and self-centeredness will vanish. The miracle starts within, not from without. ~ E. Stanley Jones

Shame is a child of self-centeredness. Heaven's occupants are not self-centered, they are Christ-centered. You will be in your sinless state. The sinless don't protect a reputation or project an image. You won't be ashamed. You'll be happy to let God do in heaven what he did on earth - be honored in your weaknesses. Heads bowed in shame? No. Heads bowed in worship? No doubt. ~ Max Lucado

The shape of evil is much more superficiality and blindness than the usual list of hot sins. God hides, and is found, precisely in the depths of everything. ~ Richard Rohr

There are who never learn to see anything except in its relation to themselves, nor that relation except as fancied by themselves; and, this being a withering habit of mind, they keep growing drier, and older, and smaller, and deader, the longer they live--thinking less of other people, and more of themselves and their past experience, all the time as they go on withering. ~ George MacDonald

We must get away from this limited *I did this and I did that* and the self-centeredness, that dominates our society Today. It must be a privilege to serve members of society. Not that we want rewards or medals or honor for what we do, because it is just an honor to do it, if you cannot work for that, than you missed the boat. You don't understand the teachings of the wisest men ever lived. ~ Jacque Fresco

Trying to observe the slow shift from self-centeredness to empathy is like trying to watch grass grow. ~ Neal A. Maxwell

I am most thankful for what I don't have, for had my life's wish list been filled in the manner I had chosen I would be steeped in meaningless trinkets verses bathed in God's treasures. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

The most capricious modern entitlement is not just Social Security but to self-esteem. ~ George F. Will

I have no self-centeredness or ego about being a movie star. ~ Shah Rukh Khan

Every now and then, I'll meet an escapee, someone who has broken free of self-centeredness and lit out for the territory of compassion. You've met them, too, those people who seem to emit a steady stream of, for want of a better word, love-vibes. As soon as you come within range, you feel embraced, accepted for who you are. For those of us who suspect that you rarely get something for nothing, such geniality can be discomfiting. Yet it feels so good to be around them. They stand there, radiating photons of goodwill, and despite yourself you beam back, and the world, in a twinkling, changes. ~ Marc Ian Barasch

Everything I do for my private wellbeing adds another layer to my ego, and in thickening it insulates me more from God. Conversely, every act done without thought for myself diminishes my self-centeredness until finally no barrier remains to separate me from the Divine. The ~ Huston Smith

If it's about me, I can be assured that there will be a bunch of empty chairs in the auditorium of my life; save the one I'm sitting in. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

All we need to release our inner God is a pulpit and an audience, both of which the Internet supplies in great abundance. Too bad that the corollaly to being in God mode in cyberspace is an explosion of narcissism and self-centeredness. ~ Elias Aboujaoude Md

Logotherapy focuses rather on the future, that is to say, on the meanings to be fulfilled by the patient in his future. (Logotherapy, indeed, is a meaning-centered psychotherapy.) At the same time, logotherapy defocuses all the vicious-circle formations and feedback mechanisms which play such a great role in the development of neuroses. Thus, the typical self-centeredness of the neurotic is broken up instead of being continually fostered and reinforced. To be sure, this kind of statement is an oversimplification; yet in logotherapy the patient is actually confronted with and reoriented toward the meaning of his life. And to make him aware of this meaning can contribute much to his ability to overcome his neurosis. ~ Anonymous

How hungrily we read about ourselves! ~ Gore Vidal

So much of life's curriculum, therefore, consists of efforts by the Lord to get and keep our attention. Ironically, the stimuli He uses are often that which is seen by us as something to endure. Sometimes what we are actually being asked to endure is His "help": help to draw us away from the cares of the world; help to draw us away from self-centeredness; attention getting help when we have ignored the still, small voice; help in the shaping of our souls; and help to keep promises we made so long ago. ~ Neil A. Maxwell

The greed to be loved is a fearful thing. Some of those who say that they live only for love come to live in incessant resentment. ~ C.S. Lewis

There is nothing more irreligious than self-absorbed religion. ~ J.I. Packer

Self-awareness is not self-centeredness, and spirituality is not narcissism. 'Know thyself' is not a narcissistic pursuit. ~ Marianne Williamson

Seeing myself or my church or my denomination as "the blessing"  -  like so many mission trips to help "those less fortunate than ourselves"  -  can easily descend into a blend of  benevolence and paternalism. We can start to see the "poor" as supporting characters in a big story about how noble, selfless, and helpful we are. ~ Nadia Bolz-Weber

Paul's goal is the transformation of the community that will turn from self-centeredness to a corporate existence shaped primarily by the love exhibited by the self-denial of Jesus. ~ James W. Thompson

It takes both spouses to say, "My self-centeredness is the main problem in my marriage" to have a great marriage. ~ Timothy Keller

Each spouse's self-centeredness asserted itself (as it always will), but in response, the other spouse got more impatient, resentful, harsh, and cold. In other words, they responded to the self-centeredness of their partner with their own self-centeredness. Why? Self-centeredness by its very character makes you blind to your own while being hypersensitive, offended, and angered by that of others.4 The result is always a downward spiral into self-pity, anger, and despair, as the relationship gets eaten away to nothing. ~ Timothy Keller

It is precisely our egoism, our self-centeredness and self-love that cause all our difficulties, our lack of freedom in suffering, our disappointments and our anguish of soul and body. ~ Tito Colliander

All people need to be treated gently and respectfully, especially those who have been wounded. They will be unusually sensitive to rough handling. Nevertheless, all people must be challenged to see that their self-centeredness hasn't been caused by the people who hurt them; it's only been aggravated by the abuse. And they must do something about it, or they're going to be miserable forever. ~ Timothy Keller

The survival instinct, however, is self-conscious in human beings; and when it consciously motivates our behavior, it defines us as radically self-centered creatures. Our self-centered drive to survive is a universal reality rooted in our biology. It was this aspect of our humanity that led our ancient religious mythmakers to try to describe its origins. "Original sin" was their answer to the question of the source of our universal human self-centeredness. No one understood that survival was an involuntary biological drive in life. Instead it was understood as the result of sinfulness and of disobedience. Atonement theology was born as a way to address this universal flaw in our understanding of human life. ~ John Shelby Spong

False humility is quite like the worst of both worlds: both that of Meekness and that of Conceit. ~ Criss Jami

There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally. ~ Miguel Ruiz

They turned on the television and saw some news story about another goddamn humanitarian crisis, another goddamn civil war in some godforsaken place, and saw images of wounded people or starving children and felt a bright, bitter anger at the children for invading and ruining the only moments of relaxation and "me time" the neighbors had all day. The neighbors would get a little indignant here, about how their own lives were hard too, and yet nobody heard them complaining about it. everyone had problems - why couldn't they just quietly deal with them? On their own? With a bit of self-respect? Why did they have to get everyone else involved? It's not like the neighbors could do anything. It's not like civil wars were their fault. ~ Nathan Hill

The image of God infused in us never sees the light of day in the service of self, but it becomes the light of day in the service of others. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

I began to see the magic of Jocelyn's horse psychology school. You couldn't put on airs with a horse, as we so often do with people. Horses look through the masks we wear and the things we say. They see who we really are. They gauge our intentions in a thousand invisible ways that have nothing to do with the words we say. They shy away from the barriers of fear, self-centeredness, jealousy, anger, impatience. They are drawn in by kindness, understanding, concern, openness, love.

The thing is, so are people. ~ Lisa Wingate

Raising or caring for children requires sacrifice and service, which, I believe, heals us from the destructive forces of self-centeredness. ~ Richard Paul Evans

The passive righteousness of faith frees me from passing final judgment on myself. ~ Tullian Tchividjian

If love is the soul of Christian existence, it must be at the heart of every other Christian virtue. Thus, for example, justice without love is legalism; faith without love is ideology; hope without love is self-centeredness; forgiveness without love is self-abasement; fortitude without love is recklessness; generosity without love is extravagance; care without love is mere duty; fidelity without love is servitude. Every virtue is an expression of love. No virtue is really a virtue unless it is permeated, or informed, by love. ~ Richard Rohr

In addition to an open heart and open mind, I also brought (to the small group Bible study) an open mouth. ~ John Kasich

A faithful servant may be wiser than the master, and yet retain the true spirit and posture of the servant. The humble man looks upon every, the feeblest and unworthiest, child of God, and honors him and prefers him in honor as the son of a King. ~ Andrew Murray

You might have Bible verses on the wall in every room of the house and yet the unspoken rituals reinforce self-centeredness rather than sacrifice. Thus ~ James K.A. Smith

An individual has not begun to live until he can rise above the narrow horizons of his particular individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity. And this is one of the big problems of life, that so many people never quite get to the point of rising above self. And so they end up the tragic victims of self-centeredness. They end up the victims of distorted and disrupted personality. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

And yet I am happy. Yes, happy. I swear. I swear that I am happy ... What does it matter that I am a bit cheap, a bit foul, and that no one appreciates all the remarkable things about me - my fantasy, my erudition, my literary gift ... I am happy that I can gaze at myself, for any man is absorbing - yes, really absorbing! ... I am happy - yes, happy! ~ Vladimir Nabokov

long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God [to] make him happy."[21] In other words, sin is the result of self-centeredness and pride. ~ Kevin Livermore

One of my biggest challenges is figuring out how to shoehorn my newfound knowledge into conversations. ~ A. J. Jacobs

Materialism and self-centeredness are the great vices of our age. ~ Billy Graham

In the busyness and self-centeredness of our lives, we sadly forget how much our lives have been blessed by and radically redirected by mercy. ~ Paul David Tripp

The greatest poets are those with memories so great that they extend beyond their strongest experiences to their minutest observations of people and things far outside their own self-centeredness. ~ Stephen Spender

He has infinite happiness not through self-centeredness, but through self-giving, other-centered love. And the only way we, who have been created in his image, can have this same joy, is if we center our entire lives around him instead of ourselves. Why ~ Timothy Keller

The human being to lack that second skin we call egoism has not yet been born, it lasts much longer than the other one, that bleeds so readily. ~ Jose Saramago

In 1948, psychologists asked more than 10,000 adolescents whether they considered themselves to be a very important person. At that point, 12 percent said yes. The same question was asked in 2003, and this time it wasn't 12 percent who considered themselves very important, it was 80 percent. ~ David Brooks

The whole story of the Father's Christ-exalting plan of redeeming love, from eternity to eternity, must be told, or the radical reorientation of life for which the gospel calls will not be understood, and the required total shift from man-centeredness to God-centeredness, and more specifically from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness, will not take place. ~ J.I. Packer

I think myself so terribly 'clever' that the need for God is blatantly irrelevant. And all the while, in the rapidly growing mess that I'm 'cleverly' creating, I rather quickly begin to realize that the only thing that is relevant is His relevance. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

If you can be free from pride, self-pity, self-centeredness, selfishness, jealousy, envy, intolerance, impatience, greed, gluttony, lust, sloth, arrogance, and dishonesty, then there is a state of serenity and connectedness within. ~ Russell Brand

When a self-evident truth is presented, don't surprised when self-centeredness fights back... ~ Joe Matlock

Another reason for the increased self-centeredness of an adolescent is her susceptibility to humiliation. This brazen, defiant creature is also something tender, raw, thin-skinned, poignantly vulnerable. Her entire sense of personal worth can be shattered by a frown. An innocuous clarification of facts can be heard as a monumental criticism. ~ Louise J. Kaplan

One of Lincoln's intimates as a presidential candidate urged him to make no promises and not to part with those kind words which could be interpreted as promises. ~ Harold Holzer

To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others. ~ Albert Camus

The lack of God-centeredness leads to self-centeredness. ~ Max Lucado

Madelyn knew her aunt, drunk or sober, simply did not have the continuity of thought to see beyond her opinions to the implied insult. ~ Olivia Parker

The alternative to this truce-marriage is to determine to see your own selfishness as a fundamental problem and to treat it more seriously than you do your spouse's. Why? Only you have complete access to your own selfishness, and only you have complete responsibility for it. So each spouse should take the Bible seriously, should make a commitment to "give yourself up." You should stop making excuses for selfishness, you should begin to root it out as it's revealed to you, and you should do so regardless of what your spouse is doing. If two spouses each say, "I'm going to treat my self-centeredness as the main problem in the marriage," you have the prospect of a truly great marriage. ~ Timothy J. Keller

There are ultimately only two possible adjustments to life; one is to suit our lives to principles; the other is to suit principles to our lives. If we do not live as we think, we soon begin to think as we live. The method of adjusting moral principles to the way men live is just a perversion of the order of things. ~ Fulton J. Sheen

Immensity is always there, but we so often become numb to it, or deceive ourselves into thinking our own lives and selves are what's large. Step into the ocean or walk on Mount Tamalpais, and that kind of amnesia and self-centeredness isn't possible. Enter the natural world at all, you see existence emerge, ripen, fall and continue, and you can't help but feel more tender towards self and others. That summoning into the large and the shared is what poems exist also to do. ~ Jane Hirshfield

This is the true selfishness: self-centeredness. ~ Henry Cloud

Insecure leaders think everything is about them, and as a result, every action, every piece of information, every decision is put through their filter of self-centeredness. ~ John C. Maxwell

Living God's way means putting away your self-centeredness and committing yourself to follow God's Word in spite of any feelings to the contrary. ~ John C. Broger

Therefore, when facing any problem in marriage, the first thing you look for at the base of it is, in some measure, self-centeredness and an unwillingness to serve or minister to the other. The word "submit" that Paul uses has its origin in the military, and in Greek it denoted a soldier submitting to an officer. Why? Because when you join the military you lose control over your schedule, over when you can take a holiday, over when you're going to eat, and even over what you eat. To be part of a whole, to become part of a greater unity, you have to surrender your independence. You must give up the right to make decisions unilaterally. Paul says that this ability to deny your own rights, to serve and put the good of the whole over your own, is not instinctive; indeed, it's unnatural, but it is the very foundation of marriage. ~ Timothy Keller

The doctrine of the Trinity means that relationship, that fellowship, that togetherness and sharing, that self-giving and other-centeredness are not afterthoughts with God, but the deepest truth about the being of God. The Father is not consumed with Himself; He loves the Son and the Spirit. And the Son is not riddled with narcissism; he loves his Father and the Spirit. And the Spirit is not preoccupied with himself and his own glory; the Spirit loves the Father and the Son. Giving, not taking; other-centeredness, not self-centeredness; sharing, not hoarding are what fire the rockets of God and lie at the very center of God's existence as Father, Son and Spirit. ~ C. Baxter Kruger

The ego is a palpable body part in an attorney, perhaps the most prominent body part. ~ Abbe Smith

Self-pity is egotism undiluted, after all - self-centeredness in its purest form. ~ Rick Yancey

He was lonely because he could imagine himself as anything but himself and as anywhere but where he was. His competitiveness and self-centeredness cut him off from any thought of shared life. He wanted to have more because he thought that having more would make him able to live more, and he was lonely because he never thought of the sources, the places, where he was going to get what he wanted to have, or of what his having it might cost others. It was loneliness that sometimes even he felt; you could see it. A self-praiser has got to accept a big loneliness in order to accept a little credit. ~ Wendell Berry

The assumption is that if I expend myself for myself in the end all I'll be left with is myself, and that alone is frightening. But what I've failed to consider is that I have to expend so much of myself living for myself that in the end I'm really left with very little of myself, and that is unimaginably frightening. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

These illustrations suggest four general maxims[ ... ].
The first is: remember that your motives are not always as altruistic as they seem to yourself.
The second is: don't over-estimate your own merits.
The third is: don't expect others to take as much interest in you as you do yourself.
And the fourth is: don't imagine that most people give enough thought to you to have any special desire to persecute you. ~ Bertrand Russell

[Schulz] came to see that the better part of his shyness was really vanity, or self-centeredness. "Shyness is an illusion," he would say, late in life. "If you get out and do something and talk to people, you don't have to be shy. Shyness is the overtly self-conscious thinking that you are the only person in the world; that how you look and what you do is of any importance. ~ David Michaelis

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose - and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin. ~ William Temple

It matters, it matters very much, what each of us chooses to do. The journey toward self-discovery and self-knowledge is not only life's highest adventure, but also the only way to transform society from one based on self-centeredness and compulsory compassion to one based on service and mutual responsibility. ~ Arianna Huffington

Ultimate reality is a community of persons who know and love one another. That is what the universe, God, history, and life is all about. If you favor money, power, and accomplishment over human relationships, you will dash yourself on the rocks of reality [ ... ]
[it is] impossible [ ... ] to stay fully human if you refuse the cost of forgiveness, the substitutional exchange of love, and the confinements of community.
[ ... ] We believe the world was made by a God who is a community of persons who have loved each other for all eternity. You were made for mutually self-giving, other directed love. Self-centeredness destroys the fabric of what God has made. ~ Timothy Keller