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Self-Importance
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“... self-admiration giveth much consolation.”
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“'I may not know much' — another form of locution often favored by her. The tone in which it was spoken utterly belied the words; the tone told you that not only did she know much, but all.”
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“I wish I could buy you for what you are really worth and sell you for what you think you're worth. I sure would make money on the deal.”
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“Many people who imagine they are live wires are only shocking.”
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“Some people confuse having a lot of money with being worth a lot of money.”
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“... he was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.”
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“I've never any pity for conceited people, because I think they carry their comfort about with them.”
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“Enveloped in a common mist, we seem to walk in clearness ourselves, and behold only the mist that enshrouds others.”
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“... conceit is the devil's horse, and reformers generally ride it when they are in a hurry.”
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“She had no tolerance for scenes which were not of her own making ... ”
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“... he believed that he was a pillar supporting the world. It sometimes makes one nervous to reflect what very amateur pillars the world seems to employ.”
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“... self-interest usually brings injustice with it.”
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“He thinks he's finer than frog hair.”
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“Even in misery we love to be foremost, to have the bitter in our cup acknowledged as more bitter than that of others.”
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“All people interested in their work are liable to overrate their vocation. There may be makers of dolls' eyes who wonder how society would go on without them.”
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“Too much self-regard has never struck me as dignified: trying to twist over my shoulder to view my own behind.”
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“His was the triumphant mien of the military commander who has taken no active part in the dust and heat of the battle, yet marches very actively indeed at the head of his troops when they return victoriously home.”
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“But Andrew when compelled against his will had a trick of falling ill. It was not conscious pretense — it was an actual disturbance caused by the distress of not having his own way.”
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“When we can begin to take our failures non-seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.”
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“Nobody can be kinder than the narcissist while you react to life on his own terms.”
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“Anger is the common refuge of insignificance. People who feel their character to be slight, hope to give it weight by inflation: but the blown bladder at its fullest distention is still empty.”
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“... bluster will scarcely produce a mouse.”
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“Mostly every one is needing some one to be one listening to that one being one being one boasting.”
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“... nobody is a good judge in his own cause!”
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“You have a good many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of parading them, for conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long, and the great charm of all power is modesty.”
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“Conceit spoils the finest genius.”
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“Rare indeed is the nature that does not become a little more intense when its own affairs come under discussion.”
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“She imposes a high standard of conduct upon herself and wears it instead of jewelry.”
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“When someone sings his own praises, he always gets the tune too high.”
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“It is the common failing of an ambitious mind to over-rate itself ...”
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“No country pleases a man so well as his own, nay, so far is he apt to carry prejudice, that he can seldom be induced to do justice to any other nation, even where truth is on its side, if the honor and interest of his own is at stake ...”
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“'One might have seen it with half an eye from the beginning.' Mrs. Thornbrugh had not seen it with two eyes, as we know, till it was pointed out to her; but her imagination worked with equal liveliness backwards or forwards.”
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“[Asked if David Frost is religious:] Oh, yes, he thinks he is God.”
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“How friendly we should all be with one another if nobody were interested in money and honor.”
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“His book was an instant success with those who thought of themselves as thinking for themselves (if they had only had time for it).”
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“We were worse name-droppers than people who dropped our names. Another actor was a 'best friend,' 'know him very well,' 'died in my arms,' 'gave him his first break in that picture of mine.'”
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“... she had the egoism that is more selfless than most people's altruism — the divine egoism that is genius.”
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“It is impossible for one class to appreciate the wrongs of another.”
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“You who have read the history of nations, from Moses down to our last election, where have you ever seen one class looking after the interests of another?”
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“She's one of them kind of women who's always seein' she gets what's comin' to her, and takes what ain't.”
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“... what if the universe / is not about / us? Then what? / What / is it about / and what / about / us?”
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“Self-love knows no impediment.”
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“Mr. Godfrey, since the publication of his lyrics, went around with the usual conscious simper of one who has just committed the indiscretion of dropping into print — regarding all conversation sustained in his presence upon any other theme than his recent enterprise as decidedly lacking in taste.”
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“It is no good to think that other people are out to serve our interests.”
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“What concerns anyone so much as the time he has to live?”
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“I've always thought an inability to laugh at yourself must be the greatest curse a human being can bear.”
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“When we are all wrapped up in ourselves, we present a very small package to others.”
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“People who think too much of themselves do not think enough.”
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“Every time we start thinking we're the center of the universe, the universe turns around and says with a slightly distracted air, 'I'm sorry. What'd you say your name was again?'”
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“Interested in himself, he believed himself a subject of interest ...”
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“Men astonish themselves far more than they astonish their friends.”
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“When the need to be right is a driving force instead of just a preference, it is very heavy baggage.”
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“[They] would leave their tracks on pavement, if self-importance counted for anything.”
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“'It's remarkable — most remarkable, the way these people manage, from time to time, a tragedy or a near-tragedy to break the even tenor of their ways,' said Mr. Tingley, in a tone of half-humorous superiority, by which he considered that he distinguished himself, subtly and inoffensively, from 'these people.'”
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“How completely and / how deeply faithless we are, which is / to say: how true we are to ourselves.”
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“... narcissists ... have the least sense of self of anybody on the planet.”
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“We were both in love with George Sanders.”
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“When I do a show, the whole show revolves around me, and if I don't show up, they can just forget it.”
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“Some people think they are worth a lot of money just because they have it.”
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“Nobody's really paying that much attention to your massive personal dramas.”
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“There is a tendency among men as well as women ... so soon as they have acquired a little knowledge of some kind, to want to display it to the best advantage.”
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“[On Theodore Roosevelt:] Father wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding, and the baby at every christening.”
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“One's conscience may be pretty well absolved for not admiring this man: he admires himself enough for all the world put together.”
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“Egotism — usually just a case of mistaken nonentity.”
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“... affectation is fond of making a greater show than reality. ... Nature and truth have never learned to blow the trumpet, and never will.”
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“To matter, to mind. ... What we mind is in our power, but whether we matter may not be — and there's the tragedy. ... Can anyone truthfully say, I don't matter and I don't mind?”
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“To matter ... Is there any human will deeper than that? ... We don't want to live when we become convinced that we don't, can't, will never matter. ... We no sooner discover that we are than we desperately want that which we are to matter.”
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“The first person I ever cared deeply and sincerely about was — myself.”
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“Mark wasn't interested in others and their affairs. His favourite word was 'I,' with 'me' a close second.”
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“... before feminism was, Paglia was!”
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“If you are all wrapped up in yourself, you are overdressed.”
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“When you collaborate with other people, you tend to regard your own individual contribution as the most important.”
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“His idea of oral sex is talking about himself.”