pride

There is something about yourself that you don't know. Something that you will deny even exists until it's too late to do anything about it. It's the only reason you get up in the morning, the only reason you suffer the shitty boss, the blood, the sweat and the tears. This is because you want people to know how good, attractive, generous, funny, wild and clever you really are. "Fear or revere me, but please think I'm special." We share an addiction. We're approval junkies. We're all in it for the slap on the back and the gold watch. The "hip, hip, hoo-fucking-rah." Look at the clever boy with the badge, polishing his trophy. Shine on, you crazy diamond. Cos we're just monkeys wrapped in suits, begging for the approval of others.

Master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until they saturate you. Read and reread them_digest them. Let them go into your very self. Peruse a good book several times and make notes and analyses of it. A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books he has merely skimmed. Little learning and much pride comes from hasty reading. Some men are disabled from thinking by their putting meditation away for the sake of much reading. In reading let your motto be __uch not many.

Pride makes us long for a solution to things _ a solution, a purpose, a final cause; but the better telescopes become, the more stars appear.

I__ not sure how old I was when I first tried looking in the mirror and telling myself, with a shiver of pride and a warning prickle of something like fear, __ am the most powerful person in the world._ In a way, it was true. My hands and mind could do things no one else__ could, but I was too young then to understand that some power__he kind that really matters__omes from other people. And what good is being faster, or stronger, or smarter than everyone else when it leaves you all alone?

If his men could have seen his young face under his faceplate, or if they could have heard the silent curses rolling off his tongue, they would have realized to their astonishment that their captain, only twenty years of age but already famous and formidable, was crying. Astrias's tears were tears of burning fury. The rage he felt that hour he would never forget for his whole life thereafter.

Truth is the greatest marketing campaign.

They don't know the meaning of danger or fear or pain. It's only their pride that can be truly hurt.

Fear and realisation of ignorance, strong medicines against stupid pride.

The Christian God seemed the most offensive to people precisely because he was the most godlike. He was too perfect even to be coaxed by human efforts, and therefore sent his son to do the job.

How easily such a thing can become a mania, how the most normal and sensible of women once this passion to be thin is upon them, can lose completely their sense of balance and proportion and spend years dealing with this madness.

A true encounter with the living God will break the spirit of religiosity, empty man of his pride and conform even the most vile and wicked into a living vessel for His glory.

Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.

It's much easier on the emotions when one sees life as an experiment rather than a struggle for popularity.

National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.

He shook his head in exasperation. __re you sure you__e not a Succubus? You seem really obsessed with the sin of lust.___t__ a good sin. I like gluttony an awful lot, too. Sloth has its moments, but I just don__ understand acedia at all. I mean, what the f**k is that anyway? Oh, and greed is good, to quote Gordon Gekko. Anger, envy and pride,_ I ticked them off on my fingers. __ don__ often have much use for them. It__ a shortcoming that I__ hoping to correct in the next millennium or two. I__ not very old; I can__ be expected to have mastered them all yet.___ think you__e worked too hard on some of those,_ he said dryly. __aybe you should switch over to virtues instead. Give yourself a much needed break.__irtues? Yeah, right.__irtues are too difficult,_ I told him, shaking my head. __ook how old you are and you__e hardly made a dent in them. I__l admit, you seem to have zeal nailed, as well as faith and temperance. Self control? I__e got my doubts based on your recent actions. I__ not seeing the kindness, love or generosity, either. That humility thing seems to be pretty far beyond your reach, too. Really, really far. I__ sorry to tell you this, but from what I can see, the sin of pride is a major component of your character. Dude, you__e f**king old. You should have these things pretty well ticked off your shopping list by now. I__ seriously disappointed. Seriously.

The logic behind patriotism is a mystery. At least a man who believes that his own family or clan is superior to all others is familiar with more than 0.000003% of the people involved.

I do not care so much what I am to others as I care what I am to myself.

They hate you because you act like you're better than they are...." "[they are] Four that you humiliated in the yard. Four who are probably afraid of you. I__e watched you fight. It__ not training with you. Put a good edge on your sword, and they__ be dead meat; you know it, I know it, they know it. You leave them nothing. You shame them. Does that make you proud?