Quotes on Ego

Anonymous	The skeptic says, "I'll believe it when I see it." The mystic says, "I'll see it when I believe it."
Anonymous	W.A.R. stands fro "We Are Right!"
Anonymous	E.G.O. stands for "Edging God Out"
Ardrey, Robert	The tragedy and the magnificence of Homo Sapiens together rise from the same smoky truth that we alone among the animal species refuse to acknowledge natural law. -From The Social Contract
Becker, Ernest	How does one transcend himself; how does he open himself to new possibility? By realizing the truth of his situation, by dispelling the lie of his character, by breaking his spirit out of its conditioned prison. The enemy, for Kierkegaard as for Freud, is the Oedipus complex. The child has built up strategies and techniques for keeping his self-esteem in the face of the terror of his situation. These techniques become an armor that holds the person prisoner. The very defenses that he needs in order to move about with self-confidence and self-esteem become his lifelong trap. In order to transcend himself he must break down that which he needs in order to live. Like Lear he must throw off all his "cultural lendings" and stand naked in the storm of life. Kierkegaard had no illusions about man's urge to freedom. He knew how comfortable people were inside the prison of their character defenses. Like many prisoners they are comfortable in their limited and protected routines, and the idea of a parole into the wide world of chance, accident, and choice terrifies them. -From Denial of Death
Bellow Henderson, Saul	All you hear from guys is desire, desire, desire, knocking its way out of the breast, and fear, striking and striking. Enough already! Time for a word of truth. Time for something notable to be heard. Otherwise, accelerating like a stone, you fall from life to death. Exactly like a stone, straight into deafness, and till the last repeating I want I want I want, then striking the earth and entering it forever! -From The Rain King
Brando, Marlon	They're gonna tell us the way, they're gonna show us. They never really do, and we run around being cheap imitations of all those influences. -From an interviewed in Rolling Stone, May 1976
Brihadaranyaka Upanishads 4.4.19	There is on earth no diversity. He gets death after death who perceives here seeming diversity. As a unity only is It to be looked upon, this indemonstrable, enduring Being, spotless, beyond space, the unborn Soul, great, enduring.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishads 4.5.15	Where there is duality, there one sees another, one smells another, one tastes another, one speaks to another, one hears another, one knows another. But where everything has become one's own Self, with what should one see whom, with what should one smell whom, with what should one taste whom, with what should one speak to whom, with what should one hear whom, with what should one think of whom, with what should one touch whom, with what should one know whom? How can He be known by whom all this is made known?
Brunton, Paul	He must start by admitting with complete frankness that the ego worships not God but itself, and that it carries this idolatry into a Church, if religious, or onto the Quest, if mystical.
Brunton, Paul	Everything that intrudes upon the mental stillness in this highly critical stage must be rejected, no matter how virtuous or how "spiritual" a face it puts on. Only by the lapse of all thought, by the loss of all thinking capacity can he maintain this rigid stillness as it should be maintained. It is here alone that the last great battle will be fought and that the first great fulfillment will be achieved. That battle will be the one which will give the final deathblow to the ego; that fulfillment will be the union with the Overself after the ego's death. Both the battle and the fulfillment must take place within the stillness; they must not be a merely intellectual matter of thought alone nor a merely emotional matter of feeling alone. Here in the stillness both thought and emotion must die and the ego will then lose their powerful support. Therefore here alone it is possible to tackle the ego with any possibility of victory.
Chogyam, Trungpa	The main point of any spiritual practice is to step out of the bureaucracy of ego. This means stepping out of ego's constant desire for a higher, more spiritual, more transcendental version of knowledge, religion, virtue, judgment, comfort, or whatever it is that the particular ego is seeking. One must step out of spiritual materialism. -From Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
de Chazal, Malcom	The ring always believes that the finger lives for it.
Disraeli, Benjamin	Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.
Eckhart, Meister	A man has many skins in himself, covering the depths of his heart. Man knows so many things; he does not know himself. Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, just like an ox's or a bear's, so thick and hard, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo	Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine.
Feyerabend, Paul	I say that Auschwitz is an extreme manifestation of an attitude that still thrives in our midst… It becomes manifest in the nuclear threat, the constant increase in the number and power of deadly weapons and the readiness of some so-called patriots to start a war compared with which the holocaust will shrink into insignificance. It shows itself in the killing of nature and of 'primitive' cultures with never a thought spent on those thus deprived of meaning for their lives, in the colossal conceit of our intellectuals, their belief that they know precisely what humanity needs and their relentless efforts to recreate people in their own sorry image; in the infantile megalomania of some of our physicians who blackmail their patients with fear, mutilate them and then persecute them with large bills; in the lack of feeling of many so-called searchers for truth who systematically torture animals, study their discomfort and receive prizes for their cruelty. -From Farewell to Reason (1987)
Greek parable	Fool scatter about their many attributes, the wise keep such within; a piece of straw floats upon the surface of water, a precious gemstone sinks to the bottom. Therefore, it is best to disregard the seen and concentrate upon the unseen. Only within the latter may riches be found.
Gurdjieff, G.I.	A man must die; that is, he must free himself from a thousand petty attachments and identifications. . . . He is attached to everything in his life, attached to his imagination, attached to his stupidity, attached even to his sufferings, possibly to his sufferings more than to anything else. . . . Attachments to things, identifications with things, keep alive a thousand useless "I"s in a man. These "I"s must die in order that the big I may be born. But how can they be made to die? They do not want to die. It is at this point that the possibility of awakening comes to the rescue. To awaken means to realize one's nothingness.
Halsey, Margaret	Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people's characters.
Halverson, Kate	If you are all wrapped up in yourself, you are overdressed.
Hariharananda, Paramahamsa	If you put nectar in a poisonous cup, you get poison.
Harper, Lucille S.	The nice thing about egotists is that they don't talk about other people.
Hemingway, Ernest	The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed. -From A Farewell to Arms
Indian scripture	"Because I had forsaken unity with Thee, Because I, fool, had made my body me, Because I did not know Thee who didst dwell in me, Therefore I wandered through raging hells.... Because I threw away my very Self, I therefore was in chains." -Quoted by Paul Brunton in The Secret Path
Japanese proverb	Even monkeys fall out of trees.
Jung, Carl Gustav	Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
Kesey, Ken	Everybody's looking for the man on the white horse, everybody's looking for the one who will tell the Truth. So you read Lao-tzu, you read Konrad Lorenz, I don't know who else, Melville, Kenneth Patchen, somebody you think is not a bullshitter. Somebody who has the eyes of a saint and the perceptions of a ghost.
Kierkegaard, Soren	To stand on one leg and prove God's existence is a very different thing from going down on one's knees and thanking Him.
King, Martin Luther Jr.	We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.
Krishnamurti, J.	As you grow older you will find that your desires are never really fulfilled. In fulfillment there is always the shadow of frustration, and in your heart there is nor a song but a cry. The desire to become-to become a great man, a great saint, a great this or that-has no end and therefore no fulfillment; its demand is ever for the "more," and such desire always breeds agony, misery, wars. But when one is free of all desire to become, there is a state of being whose action is totally different, It is. That which is has no time. It does not think in terms of fulfillment. Its very being is in its fulfillment. -From Think on These Things
Lawrence, Brother	When we undertake the spiritual life, we must consider in depth who we are, and then we will find ourselves worthy of all scorn, unworthy of the name Christian, subject to all sorts of miseries and to countless misfortunes that trouble us and make us unstable in health, in moods, and in our inner and outward dispositions. In short, we find that we are people whom God wishes to make humble through innumerable difficulties and labors, both inward and outward. Knowing this, should we be surprised if sufferings, temptations, oppositions and contradictions on the part of our neighbor should happen to us? Should we not, on the contrary, submit ourselves to them and bear them as long as it pleases God, as things which are to our spiritual advantage? -From The Practice of the Presence of God
Lewis, C.S.	A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling "darkness" on the walls of his cell.
Maitreya Upanishads 3.2	Borne along and defiled by the stream of qualities, unsteady, wavering, bewildered, full of desire, distracted, one goes on into the state of self-conceit. In thinking, "This is I" and "That is mine" one binds himself with himself, as does a bird with a snare.
Mencken, H. L.	Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
Miller, Henry	There are no perfect beings, and there never will be.
Miller, Olin	You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.
Moody, Dwight	I have had more trouble with myself than with any man I have ever met.
Moinuddin, Shaykh Hakim Abu Abdullah Ghulam	Many people grow into adulthood and even old age without ever departing from this initial stage of egotism, the _maqam an-nafs_. Such people never stop demanding their own way, the endless satisfactions of the body. Taken to the extreme, the whole range of emotional and physical diseases we call chronic and degenerative is a result of remaining in this station too long. Fearfulness, anxiety, self-doubt, selfishness, insanity, weeping for no reason, depression, paranoia, sexual perversions, and suicide--all are emotional diseases connected with the _maqam an-nafs_, when a person lingers in it into adulthood. -From "The Book of Sufi Healing" Shaykh Hakim Moinuddin Chishti (P. 28)
Moinuddin, Shaykh Hakim Abu Abdullah Ghulam	The stations of the soul are entered into at the moment of birth, and the entire period of life is occupied in one of these stations, although there may be changes from one station to another. These are listed in ascending order as follows: Maqam an-Nafs: The Station of Egotism Maqam-al-Qalb: The Station of the Heart Maqam-ar-Ruh: The Station of the Pure Spirit Maqam as-Sirr: The Station of Divine Secrets Maqam al-Qurb: The Station of Proximity [or Nearness] to Allah Maqam al-Wisal: The Station of Union [sometimes called the Divine Wedding with the Beloved] From the moment of birth, we are constantly striving to develop the soul, and progress in this effort can be marked out and measured by referring to these stages. Obviously, not everyone attains all of the stages. It is important to realize that it is not the body as such that makes this journey, but rather the _ruh_. The translation of _ruh_ is usually given as "soul". It can also mean the breath of God, the angel Gabriel, the Quar-an, revelation or prophecy. For the Sufis, the _ruh_ is the essence of life. It is not the physical body or the brain and its thoughts and memories; nor is it the life processes. The _ruh_ has a distinct existence of its own, which is derived from God and belongs entirely to God. -From "The Book of Sufi Healing" Shaykh Hakim Moinuddin Chishti. (P. 25-26)
Mukti Upanishads 2	The efforts of man are stated to be of two kinds, those that transcend scriptures and those that are according to scriptures. Those that transcend scriptures tend to harm, while those that are according to scriptures tend to Reality.
Mukti Upanishads 2	Vasana is divided into two, the pure and the impure. If thou art led by the pure vasanas, thou shalt thereby soon reach by degrees My Seat. But should the old, impure vasanas land thee in danger, they should be overcome through efforts.
Neill, A.S.	Take from others what you want, but never be a disciple of anyone.
Nixon, Richard U.S. President	I would have made a good Pope.
Onitsura, Kamijima	While it's summer people say Winter is the better season. Such is human reason!
Peace Pilgrim	During the spiritual growing up period the inner conflict can be more or less stormy… The self-centered nature is a very formidable enemy and it struggles fiercely to retain its identity. It defends itself in a cunning manner and should not be regarded lightly. It knows the weakest spots of your armor and attempts a confrontation when one is least aware. During these periods of attack, maintain a humble stature and be intimate with none, but the guiding whisper of your higher self. -From Peace Pilgrim
Peace Pilgrim	It is because most people have not found their purpose and function that they experience painful disharmony within, and thus the body of humanity is headed for chaos. Most of us fall short much more by omission than by commission: "While the world perishes we go our way: purposeless, passionless, day after day." -From Peace Pilgrim
Plato	Access to power must be confined to men who are not in love with it.
Powell, Colin	Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
Prather, Hugh	The ego, as a collection of our past experiences, is continually offering miserable lines of thought. It's as if there were a stream with little fish swimming by, and when we hook one of them there is a judgment. The ego is constantly judging everybody and everything. It has its constant little chit chat about things that can happen in the future, things about the past, too, and these are the little fish that swim by. And what we learn to do-this is why it takes work-is not to reach out and grab a fish, you see.
Rainer Rilke, Maria	Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Sri	The camel loves to eat thorny bushes. The more it eats the thorns, the more the blood gushes from its mouth. Still it must eat thorny plants and will never give them up. The man of worldly nature suffers so much sorrow and affliction, but he forgets it all in a few days and begins his old life over again.
Ramana, Maharshi Bhagavan	Question: How to get rid of egoism? Bhagavan: Just see it for what it really is, that will be enough. It is the ego itself which makes an effort to get rid of itself, so how can it die? If the ego is to go, then something else must kill it. Will it ever consent to commit suicide? So first realize what the true nature of the ego is and it will go of its own accord. Examine the nature of the ego: that is the process of realization. If one sees what one's real nature is, that itself will get rid of the ego. Until then is it just like chasing one's own shadow; the more one advances the more distant is the shadow. If we leave our own Self, then the ego will manifest itself. If we seek our true nature, then ego dies. If we are in our own reality, then we need not trouble about the ego.
Ramana, Maharshi Bhagavan	Question: Once I was very self-reliant, but in old age I am afraid. People laugh at me. Bhagavan: Even when you said you were self-reliant, it was not so you were ego-reliant. If you let the ego go, you will achieve real Self-reliance. Your pride was merely the pride of the ego. So long as you identify yourself with the ego, you will perceive others as individuals too, and then there will be room for pride. Let that drop, and you will drop others' egos too, leaving no more room for pride. So long as there is a sense of separation, one will be afflicted by thoughts. If the original source is regained and the sense of separation is ended, there will be peace. Consider what happens when a stone is thrown up: it leaves its source, is projected up, tries to come down and is always in motion until it regains its source where it is at rest. Or look at the waters of the ocean: they evaporate, form clouds which are blown about by winds, condense into water, and fall as rain. The waters roll down the hilltops in streams and rivers until they reach their original source, the ocean, at which point they are at peace. Thus you see that where there is a sense of separation from the source, there is agitation and movement until the sense of separation is lost. So it is with yourself. Now you identify yourself with you body, and think that you are separate. You must regain your source before this false identification can cease and you can be happy. Ego is the "I"-thought. In its subtle form it remains a thought, whereas in its gross aspect it embraces mind, senses and the body. They disappear in deep sleep along with the ego, but still the Self remains. It will be the same in death. Ego is not an entity independent of the Self in order that it might be created or destroyed by itself. It functions as an instrument of the Self and periodically ceases to function, i.e. it appears and disappears as birth and death.
Ramana, Maharshi Bhagavan	Question: How can I develop? Bhagavan: Why go on pruning the ego? That is just what it wants: to be the center of attraction. The false ego is associated with objects; the subject alone is the reality. The world is seen in the light reflected by the mind. The moon shines by the reflected light of the sun. When the sun has set, the moon is useful for seeing things, but when the sun rises no one needs the moon, even though it is visible in the sky. So it is with the mind and Heart. The mind is used for seeing objects. The Self is there whether you search for it or not. The cessation of false identification reveals the Self which is eternally existing. This is called realization. The blankness is the evil result of searching the mind. The mind must be erased out of existence. See who the thinker is, who the seeker is. Then abide as the thinker, the seeker, and all thoughts will then disappear. That ego is pure ego purged of thoughts. It is the same as the Self. We talk of attaining the Self, or of reaching God, in time. But there is nothing to attain. We are already Self-existent. Nor will there ever be a time when we shall be nearer to God than now. We are ever-blissful, Self-existent, the infinite now. Our Consciousness is unbroken, continuous and eternal. It is all maya, self-hypnotism, to imagine that now we are otherwise. De-hypnotize yourself! It is ego which deludes itself that there are two selves, one which we are conscious of now (the person) and the other, the higher, the divine, of which we shall one day become conscious. This is false. There is only one Self and it is fully conscious now and for ever: there is neither past, present nor future for It, since It is out of time.
Ramana, Maharshi Bhagavan	Question: What is self-surrender? Bhagavan: It is the same as self-control. Control is effected by the removal of samskaras (innate tendencies of the mind). The ego submits only when it recognizes the higher power. Such recognition is surrender; and is the same as self-control. Otherwise the ego remains like the carved image stuck up on a tower making it appear as though it is supporting the tower on its shoulders. The ego cannot exist without the higher power but thinks that it acts of its own accord. A passenger on a train continues to hold his load on his head out of foolishness. Let him put it down; the load will reach his destination just the same. Similarly, let us not pose as the doers, but resign ourselves to the guiding power.
Ramana, Maharshi Bhagavan	Question: Does the realized sage see the world? Bhagavan: Yes, but his outlook differs. You are the screen, the Self creates the ego, the ego has its thoughts which are displayed to the world like cinema pictures and those thoughts are the world. But in reality there is nothing but the Self. All are projections of the ego. Cinema pictures move, but try going to hold onto them! What do you hold? Only the screen! Let the pictures disappear, and what remains? The screen again. And so it is here. Even when the world appears the jñani (realized sage) sees it only as a manifestation of the Self. There is only one mind functioning through the five senses. There is a power working through them, and their work begins and ends. There must be a substratum on which their activities depend, a single substratum.
Ramana, Maharshi Bhagavan	Question: What is the difference between the mind and the Self? Bhagavan: There is no difference. The mind turned inwards is the Self; turned outwards, it becomes the ego and all the world. Cotton made into various clothes we call by various names. Gold made into various ornaments, we call by various names. But all the clothes are cotton and all the ornaments are gold. The one is real, the many are mere names and forms.
Ramana, Maharshi Bhagavan	But the mind does not exist apart from the Self, that is, is has no independent existence. The Self exists without the mind, never the mind without the Self. Bhagavan: If a man thinks that his happiness is due to external causes and his possessions, it is reasonable to conclude that his happiness must increase with the increase of possessions and diminish in proportion to their diminution. Therefore if he is devoid of possessions, his happiness should be nil. What is the real experience of man? Does it conform to this view? In deep sleep man is devoid of possessions, including his own body. Instead of being unhappy he is quite happy. Everyone desires to sleep soundly. The conclusion is that happiness is inherent in man and is not due to external causes. One must realize the Self in order to open the store of unalloyed happiness.
Ramana, Maharshi Bhagavan	Question: Of what nature is the realization of westerners who relate that they have had flashes of cosmic consciousness? Bhagavan: It came as a flash and disappeared as such. That which has a beginning must also end. Only when the ever-present consciousness is realized will it be permanent. Consciousness is indeed always with us.
Ramana, Maharshi Bhagavan	To ask for the omission of your name is as much egoism as to desire its inclusion.
Ramana, Maharshi Bhagavan	If you go the way of your thoughts, you will be carried away by them, and will find yourself in an endless maze. Inquire, "For whom is there distraction?" It will not be difficult after a little practice. If the attempt is made, it will (eventually) be found not so difficult. All doubts will cease when the doubter and the source have been found. There is no use removing doubts. If we clear one doubt, another doubt will arise and there will be no end to doubts. But if the doubter is found, all doubts will cease.
Ramana, Maharshi Bhagavan	As a matter of fact, in the quest method, which is more correctly "Whence am I?" and not merely "Who am I?", we are trying to find whence the "I"-thought (the ego, the mind) arises within us. The method contains within itself, though implicitly, the watching of breath. When we watch the root of thoughts, we are necessarily watching the source of breath also, as the "I"-thought and breath arise from the same source.
Renmerde, John	When one find's oneself in a hole of one's own making, it is a good time to examine the quality of the workmanship.
Reps, Paul	We are most asleep when awake.
Riener, Joe	There once was a man who cried every time it snowed. He went to a psychotherapist. Now when the snow falls, he weeps for his mother, who died in the winter.
Roosevelt, Eleanor	Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Roshi, Suzuki	When your mind becomes demanding, when you long for something, you will end up violating your own precepts: not to tell lies, not to steal, not to kill, not to be immoral, and so forth. If you keep your original mind, the precepts will keep themselves. -From Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
Ruskin, John	When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.
Russell, Bertrand	One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.
Saint Teresa of Avila	The time will come when we shall realize that all we have paid has been nothing at all by comparison with the greatness of our prize.
Satya Sai Baba	People say "I want peace." If you remove I {ego}, and your want {desire}, you are left with peace.
Schopenhauer	If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.
Shaw, George Bernard	The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains that I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.
Singer, Isaac Bashevis	All disciples are idiots. What were Tolstoy's followers? What are the Marxists? What are the Chassidim who wrangle and push to pick up the holy crumbs from the rabbi's banquet? What are those would-be artists who imitate Picasso or Chagall? They're a flock of sheep, and they're always driven by a dog.
Tagore, Rabindranath	I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung.
Thurber, James	It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.
Tomlin, Lily	The trouble with being in the rat race is that, even if you win, you're still a rat.
Trungpa, Chögyam	There are numerous sidetracks which lead to a distorted ego-centered version of spirituality; we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are developing spiritually when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques. - From Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism.
Ulysses, James Joyce	Mass seems to be over. Could hear them all at it. Pray for us. And pray for us. And pray for us. Good idea the repetition. Same thing with ads. Buy from us. And buy from us.
Unknown	Windows listen for announcements of broken glass.
Unknown	"Do you do this for the glory?" - A young boy's question to a Swami at the end of a talk.
Unknown	The day was counting up its birds and never got the answer right.
Valéry, Paul	The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle is inborn in us.
Vivekananda, Swami.	"…ignorance is the great mother of all misery and the fundamental ignorance is to think that the Infinite weeps and cries, that it is finite. This is the basis of all ignorance -that we, the immortal, the ever pure, the perfect spirit, think we are little minds, we are little bodies." -From The Yogas and Other Works by Swami Nikhilananda, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, New York, 1953, p. 215.
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr.	We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
Wilde, Oscar	The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
Wilde, Oscar	To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Wilde, Oscar	Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live; it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Winters, Shelley	We had a lot in common. I loved him and he loved him.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig	Because our goals are not lofty but illusory, our problems are not difficult, but nonsensical.
Yogananda, Paramahamsa	The Biblical story of Abraham's plea to the Lord that the city of Sodom be spared if ten righteous men could be found therein, and the Divine Reply: "I will not destroy it for ten's sake," gains new meaning in the light of India's escape from oblivion. Gone are the empires of mighty nations, skilled in the arts of war, that once were India's contemporaries: ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, Rome. The Lord's answer clearly shows that a land lives, not in its material achievements, but in its masterpieces of man. Let the divine Words be heard again, in this twentieth century, twice dyed in blood ere half over: No nation that can produce ten men who are great in the eyes of the Unbribable judge shall know extinction. -From Autobiography of a Yogi