The pain of the narcissist is that, to him, everything is really a threat. What doesn’t surrender in reverence is blasphemous to a high opinion of oneself – the burden of self-importance. The narcissist reconstructs...

His fame as an artist requires very tender care. Look what a mask of diplomacy is painstakingly formed by the whole of that fine profile; he is as wily as a cardinal. He has scented...

I think writers are the most narcissistic people. Well, I musn’t say this, I like many of them, a great many of my friends are writers.

This story [“The Depressed Person”] was the most painful thing I ever wrote. It’s about narcissism, which is a part of depression. The character has traits of myself. I really lost friends while writing on...

When he told F. of his disgust at the eyelid’s movement, he must have been sixteen. When he decided to study medicine, he must have been nineteen; by then, having already signed on to the...

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...

The classical man’s worst fear was inglorious death; the modern man’s worst fear is just death

Where everyone wants to be a leader, it makes one a follower to want to be a leader, and a leader to know what to follow.

But the line between moral behavior and narcissistic self-righteousness is thin and difficult to discern

A sociopath is one who sees others as impersonal objects to be manipulated to fulfill their own narcissistic needs without any regard for the hurtful consequences of their selfish actions.

There’s nothing more narcissistic than being sure that you are built in the image of an all-powerful Creator-God, and that same God answers your prayers, knows your name, and has a personal relationship with you.

The most decisive and certainly most delicious option for an aggrieved worker in a narcissist’s office is simply quitting. Slamming your resignation letter on the boss’s desk and striding out to take a better job...

Etymologically, ‘compassion’ means to suffer together. ‘Together,’ however, is different from ‘identically.’ Compassion is not the same as selflessness, and not really the opposite of selfishness. Rather, it provides a basis for helping other people...

To be an end in myself is to bring an end to myself.

my child” and this intensive child-rearing.

But whatever the form in which love appears, the lesson it teaches us is the same. We can never assimilate, never become, the beloved object. Possession is never complete, it will elude us in the...

The self-centered man will always expect nothing but praise. He will hope and expect all incoming criticism to be mere self-projection from the critic because when you’re self-centered, self-projection is all you can imagine one...

If anybody studying psychology wants a concrete example of what a narcissist looks like, I advise them to consider any man who cheats on his wife. These guys are the textbook me-firsters, the ones who...

Narcissistic love is riding on the rollecoaster of disaster filled with a heart full of tears.

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

Social Media is a shared delusion of grandeur.

… don’t confuse between self-love and narcissism. Self- love is making yourself your number one priority but narcissism is start enforcing that priority over others. First one is healthy; second one is not. First one...

The main condition for the achievement of love is the overcoming of one’s narcissism. The narcissistic orientation is one in which one experiences as real only that which exists within oneself, while the phenomena in...

Well more than two thirds of the press releases from Douglas MacArthur’s command reference only one person – himself.

Some people’s theologies come across as blatantly wrong when weighed against what is revealed in Scripture. However God has mercy on those who may be wrong but genuinely seek understanding before seeking themselves.

A current pejorative adjective is narcissistic. Generally, a narcissist is anyone better looking than you are, but lately the adective is often applied to those “liberals” who prefer to improve the lives of others rather...

Certainly the most destructive vice if you like, that a person can have. More than pride, which is supposedly the number one of the cardinal sins – is self pity. Self pity is the worst...

How starved you must have been that my heart became a meal for your ego.

Yes, Eleanor loathed herself and yet required praise, which she then never believed.

Hypocrissist: A narcissist who has their head so far up their ass they can’t hear the hypocrisy coming out of their mouth.

He’s satisfied with himself. If you have a soul you can’t be satisfied.

The faculty to think objectively is reason; the emotional attitude behind reason is that of humility. To be objective, to use one’s reason, is possible only if one has achieved an attitude of humility, if...

The psyche cannot tolerate a vacuum of love. In the severely abused or deprived child, pain, dis-ease, and violance rush in to fill the void. In the average person in our culture, who has been...

You can be yourself without pursuing yourself. Have you ever seen a dog chase his own tail? He just runs in circles.

Nice people don’t necessarily fall in love with nice people.

He had made a fairly unambiguous pass at her, as she was getting out of the cab. But event that had come to nothing. Sheba said that she had sensed something resentful about him, as...

If you’re a nobody, just imagine a lot of celebrities are in love with you. Narcissism is the best cure for attention deficit disorder.

A mirror is like my own personal reality TV show—where I’m both the star and only viewer. I’ve got to get my ratings up.

I don’t care what you think unless it is about me.

When we find that God’s ways always coincide with our own ways, it’s time to question who we’re really worshipping, God or ourselves. The latter moves the nature of godliness from the King to our...

My main concern is with the world order

Imagining that you are deep and complex, but others are simple, is one of the primary signs of malignant selfishness.

The hated man is the result of his hater’s pride rather than his hater’s conscience.

Walter had never liked cats. They’d seemed to him the sociopaths of the pet world, a species domesticated as an evil necessary for the control of rodents and subsequently fetishized the way unhappy countries fetishize...

The only crime is pride.