Stroking Ego Quotes

Hopefully, when your actions and deeds - and therefore other people - boast for you, you're made tired of hearing it, too, from your own mouth because if not, all could lose sight of those actions and deeds behind the gong of your boasting. ~ Criss Jami

Your ego identity, the attachment to the bogus idea you have of yourself prevents you from expressing your authentic talent and who you truly are. This attachment makes you feel afraid of what other people may think of you, of how they will react. They may judge, tease or even leave you. Yet the obstacle is not other people. It is your idea of them, which comes from the bogus idea you have of yourself. Letting go of this idea is the only way for expressing your authentic talent. In this way you will become who you truly are, and other people will also do the same. ~ Franco Santoro

Authorship of any sort is a fantastic indulgence of the ego. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

The poor girl ws keeping that student's letter as a precious treasure, and had run to fetch it, her only treasure, because she did not want me to go away without knowing that she, too, was honestly and genuinely loved; that she, too, was addressed respectfully. No doubt that letter was destined to lie in her box and lead to nothing. But none the less, I am certain that she would keep it all her life as a precious treasure, as her pride and justification, and now at such a minute she had thought of that letter and brought it with naive pride to raise herself in my eyes that I might see, that I, too, might think well of her. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

My ego is really good. I don't need to watch myself on TV, like some others. ~ Randy Jackson

Without struggle there is no progress. ~ Allison Woyiwada

Kissinger would probably be outraged even if he reread his own memoirs, on the grounds that they are not favorable enough. ~ Walter Isaacson

What I was being told in my 20s in the close-quartered, male-ego-infused work space, was that I had to stop reacting with my emotions to sexual desire towards me. The change, in other words, had to be made in me. ~ Cris Mazza

Feelings of despair, anger, hatred, bitterness, stress, and depression stem from the ego's anxiety and insistence on living up to an external standard. The result is the anguish of not measuring up or fitting in properly. The ego will seldom allow you to rest, and demands more and more because it's terrified that you'll be called a failure. When you move beyond ego and make your higher self the dominant force in your life, you'll begin to feel that contentment and inner glow of peace and success that characterizes the extra mile. 2. ~ Wayne W. Dyer

I swear to you, by my own stunning good looks and towering ego, that I am not lying to you. ~ Jim Butcher

These tribal wars, like the practice of circumcision, are brought about by the ego, selfishness, and aggression of men. I hate to say that, but it's true. Both acts stem from their obsession with their territory - their possessions - and women fall into that category both culturally and legally. Perhaps if we cut their balls off, my country would become paradise. The men would calm down and be more sensitive to the world. Without that constant surge of testosterone, there'd be no war, no killing, no thieving, no rape. And if we chopped off their private parts, and turned them loose to run around and either bleed to death or survive, maybe they could understand for the first time what they're doing to their women. ~ Waris Dirie

A mind is a terrible thing; waste it. ~ Brad Blanton

An ego should be like a warm breeze, never seen, just mildly sensed. ~ David Luiz

In the therapeutic process based on awareness, there exists no "I" – it just exists a presence, a light, a love and a silence. ~ Swami Dhyan Giten

I've heard people say that you have to tip-toe around a woman's emotions, but a man's ego is every bit as fragile, if not more so. ~ Trisha Wolfe

When you can completely love your ego unconditionally and accept it as part of how you express in this life, you'll no longer have a problem with it. It won't impede your growth - on the contrary, it will be an asset. ~ Anita Moorjani

An inflated consciousness is always egocentric and conscious of nothing but its own existence. It is incapable of learning from the past, incapable of understanding contemporary events, and incapable of drawing right conclusions about the future. It is hypnotized by itself and therefore cannot be argued with. It inevitably dooms itself to calamities that must strike it dead. ~ Carl Jung

We do not feel that ordinarily, do we? What we feel, instead, is an identification of ourselves with our ideas of ourselves - I would rather say, with our image of ourselves. That is the person, or the ego. You play a role; you identify with that role. I play a role called Alan Watts. And I know very well that it is a big act. I can play some other roles besides Alan Watts if necessary, but I find this one is best for making a living. But I assure you that is a mask and I do not take it seriously. The idea of my being a kind of guru, or savior of the world just breaks me up, because I know me. Besides, it is very difficult to be holy, in the ordinary sense. ~ Alan W. Watts

Some people drink to unleash their libidos, and other people drink to prop up their egos. ~ Lou Reed

In the West the whole Western tradition of religion and psychology propounds, preaches, persuades people to have strong egos - because unless you have a strong ego, how can you survive? Life is a struggle; if you are egoless you will be destroyed. Then who will resist? Who will fight? Who will compete? And life is a continuous competition. Western psychology says: Attain to the ego, be strong in it. ~ Rajneesh

It's almost like it's my alter ego when I get on stage ... I turn into this different person, seriously. Bipolar disorder. I'm tired of everybody touching me and things being plugged into my head. ~ Britney Spears

I like the fact that when you're put into a really extreme situation, you put everything else aside. You put your ego aside and get on with it, and I quite like that. ~ Maisie Williams

Sitting back in the evening, stargazing and stroking your dog, is an infallible remedy. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thérèse (of Lisieux) told her sister, Celine, who was upset with her own faults, "If you are willing to bear serenely the trial of being displeasing to yourself, then you will be a pleasant place of shelter for Jesus." If you observe yourself, you will see how hard it is to be "displeasing" to yourself, and that this is the initial emotional snag that sends you into terribly bad moods without even realizing the origins of these moods. So to resolve this common problem, both Francis and Thérèse teach you to let go of the very need to "think well of yourself" to begin with! That is your ego talking, not God, they would say. Only those who have surrendered their foundational egocentricity can do this, of course. Psychiatrist and writer Scott Peck once told me that Thérèse's quote was "sheer religious genius" because it made the usual posturing of religion well-nigh impossible. ~ Richard Rohr

This is a sport where you get your ego checked on a regular basis, whether it's in the cage or it's at practice. ~ Carlos Condit

INTPs seem more inclined toward cerebral narcissism than most other types. While Vaknin sees the narcissist's chance of recovery as relatively slim, I tend to disagree, especially for those with milder cases. In my experience, as INTPs mature and develop, their need for ego affirmation gradually diminishes and is supplanted by a healthier sense of self-worth. ~ A.J. Drenth

My rather arrogant attitude deludes me into believing that my ability to understand something is the criteria for its legitimacy. And if there's one thing in my life that I don't understand yet I allow to be legitimate, thinking this way would most certainly be it. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

There must be an alternative between Hollywood and New York, between those two places psychically as well as geographically. The University of Iowa tries to offer such a community, congenial to the young writer, with his uneasiness about writing as an honorable career, or with his excess of ego about calling himself a writer. ~ Paul Engle

It's hard to look inside a person to answer a question about why anybody wants to be president. I suppose a combination of ambition, ego, and a real feeling that he could make a difference and could accomplish some things. All you ever had to do for Jimmy Carter was to tell him something was impossible, and he would usually do it. ~ Hamilton Jordan

Do not surrender to a situation that nurtures the ego. ~ Devdutt Pattanaik

Boxing is an ego-driven sport. The idea is to not get too personal or emotional with it. You just know when it's over, it's over, and that's it. ~ Mike Tyson

Chess and me, it's hard to take them apart. It's like my alter ego. ~ Bobby Fischer

You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak. ~ George Clooney

All my ego wants is to be sitting by a lake in Italy. It doesn't want to be backstage, warming up. ~ Chet Faker

Christians are usually sincere and well-intentioned people until you get to any real issues of ego, control power, money, pleasure, and security. Then they tend to be pretty much like everybody else. We often given a bogus version of the Gospel, some fast-food religion, without any deep transformation of the self; and the result has been the spiritual disaster of "Christian" countries that tend to be as consumer-oriented, proud, warlike, racist, class conscious, and addictive as everybody else-and often more so, I'm afraid. ~ Richard Rohr

The hardest part about being back in the human world was relearning emotion. Everything a wolf does has a practical, simple reason. There is no cold shoulder, no saying one thing when you mean something else, no innuendo. Wolves fight for two reasons: family and territory. Humans are driven by ego; wolves have no room for it and will literally nip it out of you. For a wolf, the world is about understanding, knowledge, respect – attributes that many humans have cast off, along with an appreciation of the natural world. ~ Jodi Picoult

Helplessness, hopelessness, despair, anger and hatred are all symptoms of a fundamental delusion that has occurred within the depth of the mind. It has occurred because there has been a long history of having cultivated the skill of listening to the wrong voice. The wrong voice is the voice of ego. It has taught you to judge, to pick, to select what you will be responsible for. ~ Shanti Christo Foundation

Yeah, I'm a classy guy." Ranger scooped up a handful of popcorn. "A little girl's life is at stake. That doesn't leave much room for ego and turf wars. ~ Janet Evanovich

Both are manifestations of pride. Boasting is the response of pride to success. Self-pity is the response of pride to suffering. Boasting says, "I deserve admiration because I have achieved so much." Self-pity says, "I deserve admiration because I have sacrificed so much." Boasting is the voice of pride in the heart of the strong. Self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak.
The reason self-pity does not look like pride is that it appears to be needy. But the need arises from a wounded ego and the desire of the self-pitying is not really for others to see them as helpless, but heroes. The need self-pity feels does not come from a sense of unworthiness, but from a sense of unrecognized worthiness. It is the response of unapplauded pride. ~ John Piper

When our pride usurps Truth, we walk on the shifting sands of relativism, an ego driven reality. ~ Alisa Hope Wagner

When one has suffered or fears suffering, one pities those who suffer; but when one is suffering, one pities only oneself. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Live in the present. The past is gone; the future is unknown
but the present is real, and your opportunities are now. You must see these opportunities; they must be real for you. The catch is that they can't seem real if your mind is buried in past failures, if you keep reliving old mistakes, old guilts, old tragedies. Fight your way above the many inevitable Traumatizations of your ego, escape damnation by the past, and look to the opportunities of the present. I don't mean some vague moment in the present
next week or next month, perhaps. I mean today, this minute. ~ Maxwell Maltz

Even if matter could do every outward thing that God does, the idea of it would not work as satisfactorily, because the chief callfor a God on modern men's part is for a being who will inwardly recognize them and judge them sympathetically. Matter disappoints this craving of our ego, so God remains for most men the truer hypothesis, and indeed remains so for definite pragmatic reasons. ~ William James

Your expectations of other people should never be greater than what you expect of God. Why is it that you can patiently wait for him to make your life better, but you won't consider he is patiently waiting for you to be better? ~ Shannon L. Alder

I occasionally swank a little because people like it; a modest man is such a nuisance. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Religions are metaphorical systems that give us bigger containers in which to hold our lives. A spiritual life allows us to move beyond the ego into something more universal. Religious experience carries us outside of clock time into eternal time. We open ourselves into something more complete and beautiful. This bigger vista is perhaps the most magnificent aspect of a religious experience.
There is a sense in which Karl Marx was correct when he said that religion is the opiate of the people. However, he was wrong to scoff at this. Religion can give us skills for climbing up on onto a ledge above our suffering and looking down at it with a kind and open mind. This helps us calm down and connect to all of the world's sufferers. Since the beginning of human time, we have yearned for peace in the face of death, loss, anger and fear. In fact, it is often trauma that turns us toward the sacred, and it is the sacred that saves us. ~ Mary Pipher

No one can ever heap enough insults upon me to suit my taste. I think we all really thrive on hostility, because it's the most intense kind of massage the ego can undergo. Other people's indifference is the only horror. ~ Paul Bowles