Quotes About Ego

bThere is, indeed, nothing that man's nature seeks more eagerly than to be flattered.

By becoming emperor, I would once more put myself above my state.

Eisenhower on Patton: "Fundamentally, he is so avid for recognition as a great commander that he won't with ruthlessly suppress any habit that will jeopardize it.

I wanted to swallow myself by opening my mouth very wide and turning it over my head so that it would take in my whole body, and then the Universe, until all that would remain of me would be a ball of eaten thing which little by little would be annihilated: that is how I see the end of the world.

When you see a woman who can go nowhere without a staff of admirers, it is not so much because they think she is beautiful, it is because she has told them they are handsome.

A man who is not a fool can rid himself of every folly except vanity.

When you act you are one with the action, it is only afterwards that the ego appropriates the act from which it was absent, and says "I have done this." At the moment of acting there is only acting, without an actor.

Be knowingly silent as often as you can and you will no longer be a prey to the desire to be this or that. You will discover in the everyday events of life the deep meaning behind the fulfilment of the whole, for the ego is totally absent.

A person (or ego) with a connection to the Self has a sense that what she is doing with her life is meaningful. This can only be known subjectively, it is soul knowledge.

Provided a man is not mad, he can be cured of every folly but vanity.

What is the real origin of my own anger? Is it the ego defending its territory, or is it something that has its source in the desire for the well-being of all? (73)

The ego is like a clever monkey, which can co-opt anything, even the most spiritual practices, so as to expand itself. (155)

I don't wake up each morning saying, 'Oh, wow, it's me. I think I'm the cat's meow. I'm the best.'

The fundamental conflict in the spiritual quest is that ego desires spiritual enlightenment, but ego can never achieve spiritual enlightenment. Self cannot achieve no-self. That's why anyone who wants to sell enlightenment must first reduce it to more manageable proportions; to something ego can achieve. Enlightenment Lite: Less demanding, feels great. Enlitenment.

Self is ego and ego resides exclusively in the dreamstate. If you want to break free of the dreamstate, you must break free of self, not stroke it to make it purr or groom it for some imagined brighter future.

The power of our devotion to teachers and teachings is not a reflection of their value, but of ego's will to survive. It's ego—the false self—that exalts the guru and declares the teaching sacred, but nothing is exalted or sacred, only true or not true.

The fundamental conflict can only be resolved by altering the equation. Yes, it's cheating, but everyone's okay with it. Spiritual enlightenment gets redefined as something attainable by ego, and now the equation works to everyone's satisfaction. Ego gets to continue the noble quest and a thriving spiritual industry continues to thrive. Of course, no one gets the grail, but if you understand the fundamental conflict, you'll see that no one really wanted it anyway.

No one can push you, pull you, or go with you. All thoughts, ideas, feelings, concepts, and systems of knowledge and belief boil down to this one unequivocal distinction; sewer or sunshine, dungeon or daylight, ego or surrender, obstruction or flow, segregation or integration, vertical entrenchment or horizontal progress.

To surrender is to relinquish the illusion of control, which initiates the death part of the death/rebirth process, which is the transition from the bondage of the womb-like Segregated State to the freedom of the ever-expanding Integrated State. No faith or belief is required to accomplish this act of surrender, only clear-seeing. When one begins to understand ego and fear for what they really are, then this process becomes as easy and natural as dropping a heavy weight.

To those who would argue, correctly, that the teachings of the East offer deeper, richer levels of subtlety and sophistication than the more youthful and boisterous Americans, I'd reply that waking up is a youthful, boisterous business and that those who seek ever deeper layers of understanding are merely fulfilling ego's agenda of stagnation and self-preservation.

Yes, I have an ego and it looks similar to the one I dropped to, as you say, achieve nirvana. But then I came back all enlightened and everything, and I needed something to wear. I look around and there's my discarded ego lying in a pile on the floor so I slip into it and here I am.

We don't want truth, we want a particular truth; one that doesn't threaten ego; one that doesn't exist. We insist on a truth that makes sense given what we know, not knowing that we know nothing.

The fear of no-self is the mother of all fears, the one upon which all others are based. No fear is so small or petty that the fear of no-self isn't at its heart. All fear is ultimately fear of no-self.

Well, the problem is, it's not easy for me to think of ways to improve myself, because I'm pretty much one of the best people I know.