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I am excessively diverted.
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Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
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When you're thinking, please remember this: excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility.
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Ken Follett (The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1))
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Be careful not to appear obsessively intellectual. When intelligence fills up, it overflows a parody.
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Criss Jami (Healology)
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Such excessive preoccupation with his faults is not a truly spiritual activity but, on the contrary, a highly egoistic one.The recognition of his own faults should make a man humbler, when it is beneficial, not prouder, which the thought that he ought to have been above these faults makes him.
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Paul Brunton (Healing of the Self, the Negatives: Notebooks)
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These are the Seven Deadly Sins: Avarice, Envy, Pride, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Sloth.
These are the seven deadly sins: venality, paranoia, insecurity, excess, carnality, contempt, boredom.
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Martin Amis (Other People)
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You've certainly mellowed out... you used to be fun, full of life and emotion. Lust, Greed, Sloth, Gluttony, Envy, Wrath, and Pride. Of course, excessive want will destroy anyone, but those same desires are necessary to understand what it means to be human. Why did you rid yourself of them?
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Hiromu Arakawa
“
An excess of simplicity, after all, was just another form of ostentation, and pride in one’s humility a sin.
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Robert Harris (Conclave)
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And yet is not mankind itself, pushing on its blind way, driven by a dream of its greatness and its power upon the dark paths of excessive cruelty and of excessive devotion. And what is the pursuit of truth, after all?
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Joseph Conrad (Lord Jim)
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Boastfulness and excessive pride are also the weak, self-destructive points that can reveal a person's lack of credibility and deficient integrity. ~ Angelica Hopes, The F. Trilogy
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Angelica Hopes
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Seduction requires an openness to the other person, a willingness to bend and adapt. Excessive pride, without anything to justify it, is highly anti-seductive.
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Robert Greene (The Art of Seduction)
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Excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility. - Cuthbert Whitehead
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Ken Follett (The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1))
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Like a child at the cinema, we get caught up in the illusion. From this comes all of our vanity, ambition, and insecurity. We fall in love with the illusions we have created and develop excessive pride in our appearance, our possessions, and our accomplishments. It’s like wearing a mask and proudly thinking that the mask is really you.
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Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse (What Makes You Not a Buddhist)
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Your charm makes me want to punch you in the nose.”
That made Ricky chuckle. “I’m not trying to piss you off, darlin’. Just trying to get you to give me a chance.”
“Why?” she had to ask. “I’m really not that interesting. I’m cute but not stunning. I’m not excessively tall. And sexually, I’m rather vanilla. So then what is it?”
Rickey decided to be honest with her. “I like your hair.”
She suddenly went tense. “You don’t have to be mean.”
“I’m not. I like curls. If we have sex, can I play with them?”
“I don’t even know how to respond to that.
”
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Shelly Laurenston (Wolf with Benefits (Pride, #8))
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Boastfulness and excessive pride do not equate at all with humility and honesty, credibility and integrity. ~ Angelica Hopes, The F. Trilogy
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Angelica Hopes
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When you’re thinking, please remember this: excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility.
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Ken Follett (The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1))
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We tend to be taken aback by the thought that God could be angry. how can a deity who is perfect and loving ever be angry?...We take pride in our tolerance of the excesses of others. So what is God's problem?... But love detests what destroys the beloved. Real love stands against the deception, the lie, the sin that destroys. Nearly a century ago the theologian E.H. Glifford wrote: 'Human love here offers a true analogy: the more a father loves his son, the more he hates in him the drunkard, the liar, the traitor.'... Anger isn't the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference... How can a good God forgive bad people without compromising himself? Does he just play fast and loose with the facts? 'Oh, never mind...boys will be boys'. Try telling that to a survivor of the Cambodian 'killing fields' or to someone who lost an entire family in the Holocaust. No. To be truly good one has to be outraged by evil and implacably hostile to injustice.
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Rebecca Manley Pippert
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The demons that wage war on us through our shortcomings in virtue are those that teach unchastity, drunkenness, avarice and envy. Those that wage war on us through our excessive zeal for virtue teach conceit, self-esteem and pride; they secretly pervert what is commendable into what is reprehensible.
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Maximus the Confessor
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The proud man, then, is an extreme in respect of the greatness of his claims, but a mean in respect of the rightness of them; for he claims what is accordance with his merits, while the others go to excess or fall short.
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Aristotle
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The Oracle at Delphi contained three maxims emblematic of Greek life. "Know yourself." "Nothing in excess." and, "Offer a guarantee and disaster threatens.
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Anthony Everitt (The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire)
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She had said he had been driven away from her by a dream,--and there was no answer one could make her--there seemed to be no forgiveness for such a transgression.
And yet is not mankind itself, pushing on its blind way, driven by a dream of its greatness and its power upon the dark paths of excessive cruelty and of excessive devotion. And what is the pursuit of truth, after all?
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Joseph Conrad (Lord Jim)
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If you have not seen the real end of the journey, don’t boast much at the beginning and never be too proud and haughty in mid of the path. Keep the real end in mind and mind how to get to the real end successfully!
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Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
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It is necessary to protect precious silence from all parasitical noise. The noise of our “ego”, which never stops claiming its rights, plunging us into an excessive preoccupation with ourselves. The noise of our memory, which draws us toward the past, that of our recollections or of our sins. The noise of temptations or of acedia, the spirit of gluttony, lust, avarice, anger, sadness, vanity, pride—in short: everything that makes up the spiritual combat that man must wage every day. In order to silence these parasitical noises, in order to consume everything in the sweet flame of the Holy Spirit, silence is the supreme antidote.
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Robert Sarah (The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise)
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It's precisely their diseases that people pride themselves on, and I do-more perhaps than anybody else. Let's not argue; my objection was absurd. But that aside, I am firmly convinced that not only excess of consciousness, but any consciousness at all is a disease.
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Fyodor Dostoevsky (Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead)
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When you give your items away, don’t keep the excess of your pride.
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Bremer Acosta (Stoic Practice)
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though excessive pride may seek for freedom, it may only see freedom in chains
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Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
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[S]ince you are angry at me without reason, you attack me harshly with, "Oh outrageous presumption! Oh excessively foolish pride! Oh opinion uttered too quickly and thoughtlessly by the mouth of a woman! A woman who condemns a man of high understanding and dedicated study, a man who, by great labour and mature deliberation, has made the very noble book of the Rose, which surpasses all others that were ever written in French. When you have read this book a hundred times, provided you have understood the greater part of it, you will discover that you could never have put your time and intellect to better use!"
My answer: Oh man deceived by willful opinion! I could assuredly answer but I prefer not to do it with insult, although, groundlessly, you yourself slander me with ugly accusations. Oh darkened understanding! Oh perverted knowledge ... A simple little housewife sustained by the doctrine of Holy Church could criticise your error!
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Christine de Pizan (Le Débat Sur Le Roman De La Rose)
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Rest is good, but laziness is not.
Labour is good, but slavery is not.
Wine is good, but drunkenness is not.
Food is good, but gluttony is not.
Money is good, but greed is not.
Wealth is good, but selfishness is not.
Beauty is good, but vanity is not.
Sex is good, but lust is not.
Pleasure is good, but sin is not.
Amusement is good, but decadence is not.
Fame is good, but self importance is not.
Confidence is good, but ego is not.
Eloquence is good, but flattery is not.
Charisma is good, but deception is not.
Ambition is good, but self interest is not.
Influence is good, but manipulation is not.
Authority is good, but tyranny is not.
Servitude is good, but bondage is not.
Admiration is good, but idolatry is not.
Law is good, but injustice is not.
Race pride is good, but bigotry is not.
Liberty is good, but recklessness is not.
Freedom is good, but unruliness is not.
Belief is good, but fanaticism is not.
Religion is good, but extremism is not.
Righteousness is good, but zealotry is not.
All is good, but in excess is not.
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Matshona Dhliwayo
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We are afraid of what we will do to others, afraid of the rage that lies in wait somewhere deep in our souls. How many human beings go through the world frozen with rage against life! This deeply hidden inner anger may be the product of hurt pride or of real frustration in office, factory, clinic, or home. Whatever may be the cause of our frozen rage (which is the inevitable mother of depression), the great word of hope today is that this rage can be conquered and drained off into creative channels …
…What should we do? We should all learn that a certain amount of aggressive energy is normal and certainly manageable in maturity. Most of us can drain off the excess of our angry feelings and destructive impulses in exercise, in competitive games, or in the vigorous battles against the evils of nature and society. We also must realize that no one will punish us for the legitimate expression of self-assertiveness and creative pugnacity as our parents once punished us for our undisciplined temper tantrums. Furthermore, let us remember that we need not totally repress the angry part of our nature. We can always give it an outlet in the safe realm of fantasy. A classic example of such fantasy is given by Max Beerborn, who made a practice of concocting imaginary letters to people he hated. Sometimes he went so far as to actually write the letters and in the very process of releasing his anger it evaporated.
As mature men and women we should regard our minds as a true democracy where all kinds of ideas and emotions should be given freedom of speech. If in political life we are willing to grant civil liberties to all sorts of parties and programs, should we not be equally willing to grant civil liberties to our innermost thoughts and drives, confident that the more dangerous of them will be outvoted by the majority within our minds? Do I mean that we should hit out at our enemy whenever the mood strikes us? No, I repeat that I am suggesting quite the reverse—self-control in action based upon (positive coping mechanisms such as) self expression in fantasy.
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Joshua Loth Liebman (Peace of Mind: Insights on Human Nature That Can Change Your Life)
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Do not mistake self-confidence for pride. Pride is an excessive view of one's self without regard for others while self-confidence is the belief one has in themselves. - On the characters in Pride and Prejudice which Kailin Gow has adapted and is directing as a film.
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Kailin Gow
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She respected, she esteemed, she was grateful to him, she felt a real interest in his welfare; where she had been taught to ignore all feeling, all excitement - she now found herself with an excess of both. How strange! For the more she dwelled on the subject, the more power she felt; not for her mastery of the deadly arts, but for her power over the heart of another. What a power it was! But how to wield it? Of all the weapons she had commanded, Elizabeth knew the least of love; and of all the weapons in the world, love was the most dangerous.
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Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, #1))
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All those who rejoice in the success of the church's enemies will share with them in their downfall; and those who have most indulged themselves in pride and pleasure are the least able to bear calamities; their sorrows will be as excessive as their pleasure and jollity were before.
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Matthew Henry (Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (Unabridged))
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You’re infuriating.”
“And you’re excessively prideful.
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Tirzah Price (Pride and Premeditation (Jane Austen Murder Mystery, #1))
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He is so excessively handsome!
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Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
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his avowal of follies and excess seemed uttered rather in the spirit of wounded pride, than in that of contrition.
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Walter Scott (The Complete Novels of Sir Walter Scott: Waverly, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, The Pirate, Old Mortality, The Guy Mannering, The Antiquary, The Heart of Midlothian and many more (Illustrated))
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Thou has't all the symptoms of hubris but, alas, remaineth unw'rthy of the condition.
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Stewart Stafford
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I see good people dying of cold and hunger.’ Well, don’t you see wicked people dying of luxury, pride and excess?
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Epictetus (Discourses and Selected Writings (Classics))
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the mind itself suggests to itself many perverted, vicious forms of pleasure? — in the first place arrogance, excessive self-esteem, swaggering precedence over other men, a shortsighted, nay, a blind devotion to his own interests, dissolute luxury, excessive delight springing from the most trifling and childish causes, and also talkativeness, pride that takes a pleasure in insulting others, sloth, and the decay of a dull mind which goes to sleep over itself.
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Seneca (Seneca Six Pack (Illustrated): On the Happy Life, Letters from a Stoic Vol I, Medea, On Leisure, The Daughters of Troy and The Stoic (Six Pack Classics Book 4))
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believe You’re my healer. I believe You are all I need. I believe You’re my portion. I believe You’re more than enough for me. Jesus You’re all I need. So I stood there with tears, hands raised, trusting Jesus to be enough. As I reduce, He is enough. As I simplify, He is enough. He is my portion where food and clothes and comfort fall woefully short. He can heal me from greed and excess, materialism and pride, selfishness and envy. While my earthly treasures and creature comforts will fail me, Jesus is more than enough. In my privileged world where “need” and “want” have become indistinguishable, my only true requirement is the sweet presence of Jesus. So I wrote my offering on an index card and left it: “All of me.
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Jen Hatmaker (7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess)
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Totalitarian regimes justify their existence by means of a philosophy of political monism, according to which the state is God on earth, unification under the heel of the divine state is salvation, and all means to such unification, however intrinsically wicked, are right and may be used without scruple. This political monism leads in practice to excessive privilege and power for the few and oppression for the many, to discontent at home and war abroad. But excessive privilege and power are standing trmptations to pride, greed, vanity and cruelty; oppression results in fear and envy; war breeds hatred, misery and despair. All such negative emotions are fatal to the spiritual life. Only the pure in heart and poor in spirit can come to the Knowledge of God. Hence, the attempt to impose more unity upon societies then their individual members are ready for makes it psychologically almost impossible for those individuals to realize they are unity with the divine Ground [of being] and with one another.
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Aldous Huxley (The Perennial Philosophy)
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It is the fear of want that makes any of the whole race of animals either greedy or ravenous but besides fear there is in man a pride that makes him fancy it a particular glory to excel others in pomp and excess but by the laws of the utopians there is no room for this.
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Thomas More (Utopia)
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Now the man is thought to be proud who thinks himself worthy of great things, being worthy of them…
The proud man, then, is an extreme in respect of the greatness of his claims, but a mean in respect of the rightness of them; for he claims what is accordance with his merits, while the others go to excess or fall short… Therefore the truly proud man must be good. And greatness in every virtue would seem to be characteristic of a proud man… If we consider him point by point we shall see the utter absurdity of a proud man who is not good.
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Aristotle (The Nicomachean Ethics)
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How many ills, how many infirmities, does man owe to his excesses, his ambition – in a word, to the indulgence of his various passions! He who should live soberly in all respects, who should never run into excesses of any kind, who should be always simple in his tastes, modest in his desires, would escape a large proportion of the tribulations of human life. It is the same with regard to spirit-life, the sufferings of which are always the consequence of the manner in which a spirit has lived upon the earth. In that life undoubtedly he will no longer suffer from gout or rheumatism; but his wrong-doing down here will cause him to experience other sufferings no less painful. We have seen that those sufferings are the result of the links which exist between a spirit and matter; that the more completely he is freed from the influence of matter – in other words, the more dematerialized he is – the fewer are the painful sensations experienced by him. It depends, therefore, on each of us to free ourselves from the influence of matter by our action in this present life. Man possesses free-will, and, consequently, the power of electing to do or not to do. Let him conquer his animal passions; let him rid himself of hatred, envy, jealousy, pride; let him throw off the yoke of selfishness; let him purify his soul by cultivating noble sentiments; let him do good; let him attach to the things of this world only the degree of importance which they deserve – and he will, even under his present corporeal envelope, have effected his purification, and achieved his deliverance from the influence of matter, which will cease for him on his quitting that envelope. For such a one the remembrance of physical sufferings endured by him in the life he has quitted has nothing painful, and produces no disagreeable impression, because they affected his body only, and left no trace in his soul. He is happy to be relieved from them; and the calmness of a good conscience exempts him from all moral suffering.
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Allan Kardec (The Spirits' Book (Cosimo Classics Sacred Texts))
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It happens very often that those whom men esteem highly are more seriously endangered by their own excessive confidence. Hence, for many it is better not to be too free from temptations, but often to be tried lest they become too secure, too filled with pride, or even too eager to fall back upon external comforts.
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Thomas à Kempis (The Imitation of Christ)
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I do not know the particulars, but I know very well that Mr. Darcy is not in the least to blame, that he cannot bear to hear George Wickham mentioned, and that though my brother thought that he could not well avoid including him in his invitation to the officers, he was excessively glad to find that he had taken himself out of the way.
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Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
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The sisters, on hearing this, repeated three or four times how much they were grieved, how shocking it was to have a bad cold, and how excessively they disliked being ill themselves; and then thought no more of the matter: and their indifference towards Jane when not immediately before them restored Elizabeth to the enjoyment of all her former dislike.
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Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
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Knowledge, taken up to excess without hunger, even in opposition to any need, now works no longer as something which reorganizes, a motivation driving outwards. It stays hidden in a certain chaotic inner world, which that modern man describes with a strange pride as an 'Inwardness' peculiar to him. Thus, people say that we have the content and that only the form is lacking. But with respect to everything alive this is a totally improper contradiction. For our modern culture is not alive, simply because it does let itself be understood without that contradiction; that is, it is really no true culture, but only a way of knowing about culture. There remain in it thoughts of culture, feelings of culture, but no cultural imperatives come from it. In contrast to this, what really motivates and moves outward into action then often amounts to not much more than a trivial convention, a pathetic imitation, or even a raw grimace. At that point the inner feeling is probably asleep, like the snake which has swallowed an entire rabbit and then lies down contentedly still in the sunlight and avoids all movements other than the most essential.
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Friedrich Nietzsche (Untimely Meditations)
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The tired intellectual sums up the deformities and the vices of a world adrift. He does not act, he suffers; if he favors the notion of tolerance, he does not find in it the stimulant he needs. Tyranny furnishes that, as do the doctrines of which it is the outcome. If he is the first of its victims, he will not complain: only the strength that grinds him into the dust seduces him. To want to be free is to want to be oneself; but he is tired of being himself, of blazing a trail into uncertainty, of stumbling through truths. “Bind me with the chains of Illusion,” he sighs, even as he says farewell to the peregrinations of Knowledge. Thus he will fling himself, eyes closed, into any mythology which will assure him the protection and the peace of the yoke. Declining the honor of assuming his own anxieties, he will engage in enterprises from which he anticipates sensations he could not derive from himself, so that the excesses of his lassitude will confirm the tyrannies. Churches, ideologies, police—seek out their origin in the horror he feels for his own lucidity, rather than in the stupidity of the masses. This weakling transforms himself, in the name of a know-nothing utopia, into a gravedigger of the intellect; convinced of doing something useful, he prostitutes Pascal’s old “abêtissezvous,” the Solitary’s tragic device.
A routed iconoclast, disillusioned with paradox and provocation, in search of impersonality and routine, half prostrated, ripe for the stereotype, the tired intellectual abdicates his singularity and rejoins the rabble. Nothing more to overturn, if not himself: the last idol to smash … His own debris lures him on. While he contemplates it, he shapes the idol of new gods or restores the old ones by baptizing them with new names. Unable to sustain the dignity of being fastidious, less and less inclined to winnow truths, he is content with those he is offered. By-product of his ego, he proceeds—a wrecker gone to seed—to crawl before the altars, or before what takes their place. In the temple or on the tribunal, his place is where there is singing, or shouting—no longer a chance to hear one’s own voice. A parody of belief? It matters little to him, since all he aspires to is to desist from himself. All his philosophy has concluded in a refrain, all his pride foundered on a Hosanna!
Let us be fair: as things stand now, what else could he do? Europe’s charm, her originality resided in the acuity of her critical spirit, in her militant, aggressive skepticism; this skepticism has had its day. Hence the intellectual, frustrated in his doubts, seeks out the compensations of dogma. Having reached the confines of analysis, struck down by the void he discovers there, he turns on his heel and attempts to seize the first certainty to come along; but he lacks the naiveté to hold onto it; henceforth, a fanatic without convictions, he is no more than an ideologist, a hybrid thinker, such as we find in all transitional periods. Participating in two different styles, he is, by the form of his intelligence, a tributary of the one of the one which is vanishing, and by the ideas he defends, of the one which is appearing. To understand him better, let us imagine an Augustine half-converted, drifting and tacking, and borrowing from Christianity only its hatred of the ancient world. Are we not in a period symmetrical with the one which saw the birth of The City of God? It is difficult to conceive of a book more timely. Today as then, men’s minds need a simple truth, an answer which delivers them from their questions, a gospel, a tomb.
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Emil M. Cioran (The Temptation to Exist)
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The religious utopian hides his pride behind the mask of humility; he recognizes God alone; he does not recognize ministers or sacraments since he puts himself in place of both. He ministers his own religious needs and he consecrates his inner self as a place of worship more worthy of receiving God than the churches. He substitutes his own sentiments and emotions for doctrine, because doctrines are man-made speculations unable to comprehend God's essence. He considers the sacramental, ceremonial and generally institutional aspects of religion as rigid and expendable molds which are adequate for the unthinking who need strong sensations and impressions to sustain their faith. He, on the other hand, puts his trust in his own individual inspiration, strengthens his faith through direct and permanent contact with the divine and so rises as a pure spirit to the level of a "truer" religion.
The secular utopian also displays excessive pride. He believes that societies of the past were based on error since they yielded to the political principle of organization and hierarchy. The goal of the utopian is to create a society in its pristine purity, as it were, unsullied by laws and magistrates, functioning through its members' natural good will and cooperativeness. Laws, institutions, symbols, flags, armies, disciplines, patriotic encouragement and the like will all be abolished because, for pure social beings, their inner motivation of social living - togetherness - is quite sufficient and because they would serve to anchor the citizens, bodily and emotionally, in the soil and reality of the State just as pomp and ceremony, rules and institutions anchor the faithful in religion.
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Thomas Steven Molnar (Utopia, The Perennial Heresy)
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Cha-Cha favored short, earnest prayer, and he often wondered what took others so long., It had something to do with excess supplication, he suspected. He never presented a long list of specific requests to God, had always felt uncomfortable with the presumptuousness of "Ask and you shall receive." This might have been a result of pride, or his own middling ambition, but mostly Cha-Cha's prayers were a series of thank-yous and I'm sorrys.
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Angela Flournoy (The Turner House)
“
Creatures shall be seen on the earth who will always be fighting one another, with the greatest losses and frequent deaths on either side. There will be no bounds to their malice; by their strong limbs the vast forests of the world shall be laid low; and when they are filled with food they shall gratify their desires by dealing out death, affliction, labour, terror, and banishment to every living thing; and then from their boundless pride they will desire to rise towards heaven, but the excessive weight of their limbs will hold them down. Nothing shall remain on the earth or under the earth or in the waters that shall not be pursued, disturbed, or spoiled, and that which is in one country removed into another. And their bodies shall be made the tomb and the means of transit of all the living bodies they have slain.
O earth, why do you not open and hurl them into the deep fissures of thy vast abysses and caverns, and no longer display in the sight of heaven so cruel and horrible a monster?
”
”
Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo's Notebooks)
“
His identity as a naval officer is the essential balancing factor. It’s the key to his personal security and therefore he’s excessively zealous to protect his standing. That would account for the harshness and ill temper I spoke about before.” “Would he be disinclined to admit to mistakes?” “Well, there’s a tendency that way. The commander has a fixed anxiety about protecting his standing. Of course there’s nothing unbalanced in that.” “Would he be a perfectionist?” “Such a personality would be.” “Inclined to hound subordinates about small details?” “He prides himself on meticulousness. Any mistake of a subordinate is intolerable because it might endanger him.” “Is such a personality, with such a zeal for perfection, likely to avoid all mistakes?” “Well, we all know that reality is beyond the hundred-per-cent control of any human being—” “Yet he will not admit mistakes when made. Is he lying?” “Definitely not! He—you might say he revises reality in his own mind so that he comes out blameless. There’s a tendency to blame others—
”
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Herman Wouk (The Caine Mutiny)
“
I know not how I contrived to get the subject of immortality introduced. He said he never had entertained any belief in religion since he began to read Locke and Clarke. I asked him if he was not religious when he was young. He said he was, and he used to read The Whole Duty of Man; that he made an abstract from the catalogue of vices at the end of it, and examined himself by this, leaving out murder and theft and such vices as he had no chance of committing, having no inclination to commit them. This, he said, was strange work; for instance, to try if, notwithstanding his excelling his schoolfellows, he had no pride or vanity. He smiled in ridicule of this as absurd and contrary to fixed principles and necessary consequences, not adverting that religious discipline does not mean to extinguish, but to moderate, the passions; and certainly an excess of pride or vanity is dangerous and generally hurtful. He then said flatly that the morality of every religion was bad, and, I really thought, was not jocular when he said that when he heard a man was religious, he concluded he was a rascal, though he had known some instances of very good men being religious. This was just an extravagant reverse of the common remark as to infidels.
”
”
Christopher Hitchens (The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever)
“
The comparatively innocent hero still shows some marked imperfection or defect – irresolution, precipitancy, pride, credulousness, excessive simplicity, excessive susceptibility to sexual emotions, and the like. These defects or imperfections are certainly, in the wide sense of the word, evil, and they contribute decisively to the conflict and catastrophe. And the inference is again obvious. The ultimate power which shows itself disturbed by this evil and reacts against it, must have a nature alien to it. Indeed its reaction is so vehement and ‘relentless’ that it would seem to be bent on nothing short of good in perfection, and to be ruthless in its demand for it.
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A.C. Bradley (Shakespearean Tragedy)
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Greed, the twin brother of pride, has ever been the driving force of the most destructive and self-destructive human acts. The logic is familiar enough: in their pride, humans seek to dominate their world, to possess it, free to use or abuse, destroy and alienate it as they see fit.
…
From the latest electronic gadgets to fourth husbands, they are items bought in the illusion that possession can mean fulfillment - and unceremoniously discarded when the illusion bursts. We are hopelessly burded by excess possessions, closets of once-worn clothes, and yet we build more closets to fill, afraid that if our lives lost the purposes of acquisition they would have no purpose at all.
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Erazim V. Kohák (The Embers and the Stars: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Moral Sense of Nature)
“
Basics of Good Self-Care Exercise moderately but regularly Eat healthy but delicious meals Regularize your sleep cycle Practice good personal hygiene Don’t drink to excess or abuse drugs Spend some time every day in play Develop recreational outlets that encourage creativity Avoid unstructured time Limit exposure to mass media Distance yourself from destructive situations or people Practice mindfulness meditation, or a walk, or an intimate talk, every day Cultivate your sense of humor Allow yourself to feel pride in your accomplishments Listen to compliments and expressions of affection Avoid depressed self-absorption Build and use a support system Pay more attention to small pleasures and sensations Challenge yourself
”
”
Richard O'Connor (Undoing Depression: What Therapy Doesn't Teach You and Medication Can't Give You)
“
and there is dishonest men plenty to guide them to the devil, scoundrels that reckons to be the ‘people’s friends,’ and that knows nought about the people, and is as insincere as Lucifer. I’ve lived aboon forty year in the world, and I believe that ‘the people’ will never have any true friends but theirseln and them two or three good folk i’ different stations that is friends to all the world. Human natur’, taking it i’ th’ lump, is nought but selfishness. It is but excessive few, it is but just an exception here and there, now and then, sich as ye two young uns and me, that, being in a different sphere, can understand t’ one t’ other, and be friends wi’out slavishness o’ one hand or pride o’ t’ other. Them that reckons to be friends to a lower class than their own fro’ political motives is never to be trusted; they always try to make their inferiors tools. For my own part, I will neither be patronized nor misled for no man’s pleasure. I’ve had overtures made to me lately that I saw were treacherous, and I flung ’em back i’ the faces o’ them that offered ‘em.
”
”
Charlotte Brontë (The Brontës Complete Works)
“
excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility.
”
”
Ken Follett (The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1))
“
Motivate the Workforce. Have you identified each person’s “hot button” and focused on it? Do you work personal pride and shared purpose into most communications? Are you keeping your powder dry for those urgent moments when you may need it? 8. Embrace the Front Lines. Have you made your intent clear and empowered those around you to act? Do you regularly meet with those in direct contact with customers? Is everybody able to communicate their ideas and concerns to you? 9. Build Leadership in Others. Are all managers expected to build leadership among their subordinates? Does the company culture foster the effective exercise of leadership? Are leadership development opportunities available to most, if not all, managers? 10. Manage Relations. Is the hierarchy reduced to a minimum, and does bad news travel up? Are managers self-aware and empathetic? Are autocratic, egocentric, and irritable behaviors censured? 11. Identify Personal Implications. Do employees appreciate how the firm’s vision and strategy impact them individually? What private sacrifices will be necessary for achieving the common cause? How will the plan affect people’s personal livelihood and quality of work life? 12. Convey Your Character. Have you communicated your commitment to performance with integrity? Do those in the organization know you as a person, and do they appreciate your aspirations and your agendas? Have you been in the same room or at least on the same call with everybody who works with you during the past year? 13. Dampen Overoptimism and Excessive Pessimism. Have you prepared the organization for unlikely but extremely consequential events? Do you celebrate success but also guard against the by-products of excessive confidence? Have you paved the way not only for quarterly results but for long-term performance?
”
”
Michael Useem (The Leader's Checklist)
“
Who dare glory in his own good works?' I reflected. 'From one faint spark such as this, it would be possible to set the whole earth on fire.' We often think we receive graces and are divinely illumined by means of brilliant candles. But from whence comes their light? From the prayers, perhaps, of some humble, hidden soul, whose inward shining is not apparent to human eyes; a soul of unrecognised virtue and, in her own sight, of little value—a dying flame.
"What mysteries will yet be unveiled to us! I have often thought that perhaps I owe all the graces with which I am laden, to some little soul whom I shall know only in Heaven.
"It is God's Will that in this world souls shall dispense to each other, by prayer, the treasures of Heaven, in order that when they reach their Everlasting Home they may love one another with grateful hearts, and with an affection far in excess of that which reigns in the most perfect family on earth.
"There no looks of indifference will meet us, because all the Saints will be mutually indebted to each other. No envious glances will be cast, for the happiness of each one of the Blessed will be the happiness of all. With the Doctors of the Church we shall be like unto Doctors; with the Martyrs, like unto Martyrs; with the Virgins, like unto Virgins; and just as the members of one family are proud one of the other, so without the least jealousy shall we take pride in our brothers and sisters.
"When we see the glory of the great Saints, and know that through the secret working of Providence we have contributed to it, who knows whether the joy we shall feel will not be as intense, perhaps sweeter, than the happiness they themselves possess?
"And do you not think that the great Saints, on their side, seeing what they owe to all little souls, will love them with a love beyond compare? The friendships of Paradise will be both sweet and full of surprise, of this I am certain. The familiar friend of an Apostle, or of a great Doctor of the Church, may be a shepherd boy, and a simple little child may be united in closest intimacy with a Patriarch. . . . I long to enter that Kingdom of Love!
”
”
Thérèse of Lisieux (Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux)
“
Yoga does not look on greed, violence, sloth, excess, pride, lust, and fear as ineradicable forms of original sin that exist to wreck our happiness - or indeed on which to found our happiness. They are seen as natural, if unwelcome, manifestations of the human disposition and predicament that are to be solved, not suppressed or denied. Our flawed mechanisms of perception and thought are not a cause for grief (though they bring us grief), but an opportunity to evolve, for an internal evolution of consciousness that will also make possible in a sustainable form our aspirations toward what we call individual success and global progress.
”
”
B.K.S. Iyengar
“
Indeed, many relationships identified as “codependent” do involve pride, not low self-worth or a deficiency of selflove. An underlying lie of people married to drunks and other “losers” may be their own sense of mastery and self-confidence in being able to change others through their own wonderful goodness and love. They may have excessive belief in their own ability to help another person, or they may think that others will change just because of being married to them. They may also have high expectations of the spouse being forever grateful for being rescued by such an excellent partner. Then when their heroic efforts fail, they may cast blame onto themselves as well as their spouses, parents, or whomever else might be in the picture. They may then experience feelings of hopelessness about themselves and their circumstances. They may be filled with self-pity and be dissatisfied with themselves. But that is not true self-hatred. That is self-love that does not want to suffer.
”
”
Martin Bobgan (12 Steps to Destruction: Codependecy/Recovery Heresies)
“
All goes back to the earth,
and so I do not desire
pride of excess or power,
but the contentments made
by men who have had little:
the fisherman’s silence
receiving the river’s grace,
the gardener’s musing on rows.
”
”
Wendell Berry (The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry)
“
A bloated ego at any age is the biggest hurdle for active learning. Excessive self-pride murders open-mind.
”
”
Krishna Sagar Rao
“
This excess of self-confidence seems to mark both men at exactly the same point in their careers. The ancient Greeks called it hubris. We know it as the sin of pride. By it Satan fell.
”
”
Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace)
“
the seven deadly sins are lust, which means a strong passion or longing for sexual desires. Gluttony, is an excessive and ongoing eating of food and drinks. Greed, is the excessive pursuit of material things. Sloth, is an excessive laziness or failure to act upon or utilize your talents. Wrath, is a strong anger or hate toward another person. Envy, is the intense desire to have an item that someone else possesses. Pride, is an excessive view of oneself without regard for others.
”
”
S. Yvonne (Guilty Pleasures Of A Boss 2: A Billionaire Love Story)
“
In order for Christians to muster enough mercy to accept the ramifications of such a broad salvation, we must be willing to rethink our current exclusivist claims on the gospel. . . Shalom living was God's plan for all nations from the beginning. God makes a nation of Abraham specifically for the purposes of spreading shalom as it is demonstrated by practicing justice and righteousness....Where does the condemnation stop and where does the acceptance of those who don't deserve more begin? The answer was clear to Jesus. Acceptance begins with just one. Each and every one.
Ezekiel 16:49 states, "This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy." Such greedy living habits were clear violations of the hospitality ethic, sharing equity and such, that are God's expectations of people living out shalom. Again, the backdrop narrative of Sodom concerns inhospitality to strangers and not taking care of the poor and needy. This is the same rebuke Jesus makes to the Pharisees. Jesus' stories are trying to get the Pharisees to think about God's willingness to welcome and not condemn others whom they feel don't deserve acceptance into God's shalom community of creation. Jesus is still trying to get us all to do the same.
”
”
Randy Woodley
“
The people on that broadcast had been part of one of the most historic victories ever known. But they didn’t go around telling themselves how great they were. They didn’t print up bumper stickers commemorating their own awesomeness. Their first instinct was to remind themselves they were not morally superior to anyone else. Their collective impulse was to warn themselves against pride and self-glorification. They intuitively resisted the natural human tendency toward excessive self-love.
”
”
David Brooks (The Road to Character)
“
Pride doesn’t show up one day and overtake us with excessive force. Pride infuses our thoughts and grows as it is given space.
”
”
Jenni Catron (Clout: Discover and Unleash Your God-Given Influence)
“
To summarize, these are the three main problems of bed-and-breakfast establishments: throw pillows, potpourri, and breakfast conversation, and the fourth problem is gazebos. And the fifth problem is water features. And the sixth problem is themed rooms, and the seventh problem is provenance (who owned the inn before and who owned the inn before that, and who owned it before that, and what year the bed-and-breakfast was built, and how old the timber is in the main hall), and the eighth problem is pride of ownership, because why can't it just be a place you stay, why does it always have to be an ideological crusade? And the ninth problem is excessive amounts of regional advice. And the tenth problem is the absence of telephones. Even if you aren't going to use the telephone, you want to know that the telephone is there. And the eleventh problem is price. There is no bed-and-breakfast that you can see from the interstate that says $39.95 in a neon sign above it, and although you can really sleep peacefully in the bed-and-breakfast if you are the sort of person who can be comfortable in the presence of a superabundance of pillows, that rush of uncertainty and danger that you get from the motel by the interstate is absent.
”
”
Rick Moody (Hotels of North America: A Novel)
“
Enoch stood. He carried with him a tablet and dove right into his rebuttal. “The testimony we have just heard from the Accuser has several half-truths in it, or as I would more accurately define them, lies.” Enoch read from the clay tablet in his hand. “Yahweh Elohim did not say that the couple could not touch the tree, he said that they could not eat of it. That is an exaggeration of the command to make the Creator appear excessive and overbearing. Secondly, it was not ‘the tree of knowledge’ that was forbidden, it was the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’ Yahweh Elohim was not forbidding knowledge to humanity, he was commanding reliance upon him as their ultimate authority to define good and evil. And we are right back to ultimate authorities that I spoke of earlier. Yahweh Elohim is the only ground of morality that can justify the Accuser’s own attack on morality.” Enoch paused for a moment in thought, then said, “It would not surprise me if one day, the serpent will have effectively convinced the masses with more of these kinds of distortions. I can imagine him twisting the ‘forbidden fruit’ into sex, and turning Yahweh Elohim into a cosmic killjoy prude who just wants to keep people from having fun.” Enoch launched into his conclusion, “No, the forbidden fruit is the essence of freedom. The Accuser would have us believe that boundaries of protection are actually restrictions of oppression; that rules repress human potential and laws take away freedom. He and his Watchers argue that freedom is the ability to do whatever one wants without an external code imposed upon them. Let each man be a law unto himself. Yet, look around the earth below to see the consequences of such ideas. Humans have achieved the self-determination from the knowledge of good and evil and in so doing have become slaves to their own lusts. Prisoners of their desire. They claim to be free, but they are everywhere in chains of their own making. Only in the boundaries of a loving Creator can humanity be free. Is a fish out of the water free? Is a bird out of the sky free? Only in fulfilling our god-given purpose can mankind experience the liberty of obedience. Disobedience is not enlightenment, it is pure blindness; it is not freedom, it is slavery.” Enoch stood for a moment as his words sank into his own soul. He realized that he had fought God’s purpose for himself so many years — that he prayed when he should have fought, fought when he should have prayed, and too often exhibited the ultimate sin of spiritual pride. Enoch fell to his knees and wept in repentance before Yahweh Elohim.
”
”
Brian Godawa (Enoch Primordial (Chronicles of the Nephilim #2))
“
And why, oh why, I wondered, had he named me after himself? What kind of a father would do that to his son? What could he have been thinking? Was it an excess of pride? Or was it, as my sister had once theorized, just the opposite, a deep-seated sense of inferiority that made our father want to double himself?
”
”
George Bishop (The Night of the Comet: A Novel)
“
seven deadly sins and their division into three categories of love. Excessive Love (lust, gluttony and greed), Deficient Love (sloth) and Malicious Love (wrath, envy and pride).
”
”
Carol Lewis (The Painters Daughter (The Magenta Chronicles Book 1))
“
pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility.
”
”
Ken Follett (The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1))
“
Mr. Winterborne is in no way beneath me, ma'am. Character is a far more important measure of a man than birth."
"Well said. Fortunately for Mr. Winterborne, marriage to a Ravenel will elevate him sufficiently that he will be allowed to mix in good society. One hopes he will prove worthy of the privilege."
"I hope aristocratic society will be worthy of *him*," Helen said pointedly.
The gray eyes sharpened. "Is he high-minded? Refined in his tastes? Exquisite in his comportment?"
"He is well-mannered, intelligent, honest, and generous."
"But not refined?" Lady Berwick pressed.
"Whatever refinements Mr. Winterborne does not possess, he will certainly acquire them if he wishes. But I wouldn't ask him to change anything about himself, as there is already far too much to admire, and I would be in danger of excessive pride on his behalf."
Lady Berwick gazed at her steadily, her gray eyes warming. "What an extraordinary girl. 'Cool as caller air," as my Scottish grandfather used to say. You'll be wasted on a Welshman- I vow, we could have married you to a duke.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Marrying Winterborne (The Ravenels, #2))
“
It is an unpleasant surprise to discover that in the treatment of animals raised for slaughter, of fur animals and farmed fish the level of cruelty has reached an all time high, and yet such practices continue to be tolerated. I am not referring here to the most excessive among excessive practices: things like accelerating the growth of cattle with hormones, the use of artificial light night and day or the artificial swelling of livers in geese. These matters are too repulsive — "over the top" — and I do not wish to write about them. A simple order would suffice to deal with similar practices: death penalty for those responsible! (…) The cruelty involved in rearing caged [animals] differs from any other form of hunting, even the worst — in one fundamental respect: hunting affects animals that have lived a full life according to their own needs, perhaps for decades; when death arrives, it is sometimes painless, sometimes agonising — just as in nature. When hunting, man is a predator in the food chain, one cause of death among others… By contrast, caged animals spend their whole lives, from birth to death, in unnatural anguish, not like animals but like objects. In this case, the very character and pride of the animal has utterly been devastated. Nothing could be worse than this.
”
”
Pentti Linkola (Can Life Prevail?)
“
Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and the needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.
”
”
Ecclesiastes 16:49-50 ESV
“
I’ve always shared Achilles’ fatal flaw. Hubris. Excessive pride.
”
”
Krista Ritchie (Kiss the Sky (Calloway Sisters, #1))
“
Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but they did not aid the poor and the needy. They were haughty, and did an abomination before me, so I removed them, when I saw it.
”
”
Ezekiel 16:49
“
we need simply look at how capitalism changed after the idea of shareholder supremacy took over—which only happened in the final decades of the twentieth century. Prior to the introduction of the shareholder primacy theory, the way business operated in the United States looked quite different. “By the middle of the 20th century,” said Cornell corporate law professor Lynn Stout in the documentary series Explained, “the American public corporation was proving itself one of the most effective and powerful and beneficial organizations in the world.” Companies of that era allowed for average Americans, not just the wealthiest, to share in the investment opportunities and enjoy good returns. Most important, “executives and directors viewed themselves as stewards or trustees of great public institutions that were supposed to serve not just the shareholders, but also bondholders, suppliers, employees and the community.” It was only after Friedman’s 1970 article that executives and directors started to see themselves as responsible to their “owners,” the shareholders, and not stewards of something bigger. The more that idea took hold in the 1980s and ’90s, the more incentive structures inside public companies and banks themselves became excessively focused on shorter-and-shorter-term gains to the benefit of fewer and fewer people. It’s during this time that the annual round of mass layoffs to meet arbitrary projections became an accepted and common strategy for the first time. Prior to the 1980s, such a practice simply didn’t exist. It was common for people to work a practical lifetime for one company. The company took care of them and they took care of the company. Trust, pride and loyalty flowed in both directions. And at the end of their careers these long-time employees would get their proverbial gold watch. I don’t think getting a gold watch is even a thing anymore. These days, we either leave or are asked to leave long before we would ever earn one.
”
”
Simon Sinek (The Infinite Game)
“
Another practice that has given healthy pride a bad name is excessive praise for the smallest childhood success, from earning tokens in the classroom to the trophy glut at Little League. Many adults are turned off by this overpraise, sensing that the children are being done no favor. In fact, research has shown that many children overpraised for success end up becoming more cautious and less motivated than the kids who were praised only for their amount of effort, successful or not.
”
”
Lindsay C. Gibson (Self-Care for Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: Honor Your Emotions, Nurture Your Self & Live with Confidence)
“
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God. Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps. The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man. —William Blake, from “Proverbs of Hell,” The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
”
”
Jordan B. Peterson (Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life)
“
The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child has identified three kinds of stress: 10 Positive stress motivates children (and adults) to grow, take risks, and perform at a high level. Think of kids preparing for a play, nervous and a little stressed beforehand, but then filled with a sense of accomplishment and pride afterward. We could call this the jitters, excitement, or anticipation. Unless the jitters are excessive, they make it more likely that a child will perform well. Kids experiencing positive stress know that they ultimately have control over whether or not they perform at all. As it happens, kids are more likely to persevere and to reach their full potential if they know they don’t have to do something.
”
”
William Stixrud (The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives)
“
ECHOES OF LOVE: A DANCE
BENEATH THE ARCHWAYS
Beneath the archways, where shadows play,
As the world gives way, begin the odyssey. Uncertainty weaves into the grand scheme of life, A mystical altar, where destinies are intertwined.
I walk the path, seeking the balm of solace, Enduring burden, sweet hymn of love. With hopes gone, a peace is about to descend, Still the echoes remain, they dissolve in silence.
The flawed script in the story I wrote, Whispers of well-being, truths worth absorbing. "I'm fine," I say, a deceptive glare, Exposing the lies, an invisible love.
A waltz with shadows on your street, Cynic's steps, very judicious dance. Terrible notions, a conspiracy unfolds, Regret is echoing at the threshold of love.
Rumors of happiness, far-fetched, As I stumble in the field of love. In excess, I stumble and strain, Hope of solace, of regaining love.
Did I stumble in that fleeting call? Huge weakening of pride, slow decline of strength. A gift given, deemed inadequate,
In closeness, bonds become inadequate.
A crazy
search for a cure for love,
Wandering aimlessly, purpose uncertain.
Your realm echoes with such blasphemous footsteps, In the despair of the night, capricious dreams.
Happiness, heard a rumor softly,
As I wrestle with love like a flightless bird. Juggling too much reduces the weight of love, In the noise of love, a desperate clown.
The desire to turn back, the love to amend, Unraveling habits, unraveling at every turn. A desperate attempt, from the quagmire of love, Hope you find love worth savoring.
GUIDE ME, LET SALVATION BEGIN, A CHANCE TO IMPROVE, A REVENGE FOR LOVE. TO IMPROVE, HABITS HAVE TO BE BROKEN, A SELF-CALCULATING, STRIVING SOUL.
THOUGHTS ENTANGLED IN THE HOPEFUL VISION OF LOVE, A CHANCE TO IMPROVE, A DECISION OF LOVE. WITNESS THE TRANSFORMATION, LET IT HAPPEN, INSPIRE IT, IN THE DANCE OF LOVE'S LIBERATION.
LET ME ENTER AGAIN, A DOOR A LITTLE AJAR, A LOVE REBUILT, A HEALING STAR.
WATCH AS LOVE APPEARS, WATCH,
IN THE RELAXATION OF LOVE, A STORY RETOLD.
I KEEP DREAMING, MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, LOVE'S EMBRACE, WAVING DESTINY.
WITH EVERY STEP FORWARD, LOVE IS BECOMING FREE, SELF-MADE AGREEMENT, THE DEGREE OF LOVE.
”
”
Manmohan Mishra
“
Beneath the archways, where shadows play,
As the world gives way, begin the odyssey.
Uncertainty weaves into the grand scheme of life,
A mystical altar, where destinies are intertwined.
I walk the path, seeking the balm of solace,
Enduring burden, sweet hymn of love.
With hopes gone, a peace is about to descend,
Still the echoes remain, they dissolve in silence.
The flawed script in the story I wrote,
Whispers of well-being, truths worth absorbing.
"I'm fine," I say, a deceptive glare,
Exposing the lies, an invisible love.
A waltz with shadows on your street,
Cynic's steps, very judicious dance.
Terrible notions, a conspiracy unfolds,
Regret is echoing at the threshold of love.
Rumors of happiness, far-fetched,
As I stumble in the field of love.
In excess, I stumble and strain,
Hope of solace, of regaining love.
Did I stumble in that fleeting call?
Huge weakening of pride, slow decline of strength.
A gift given, deemed inadequate,
In closeness, bonds become inadequate.
A crazy search for a cure for love,
Wandering aimlessly, purpose uncertain.
Your realm echoes with such blasphemous footsteps,
In the despair of the night, capricious dreams.
Happiness, heard a rumor softly,
As I wrestle with love like a flightless bird.
Juggling too much reduces the weight of love,
In the noise of love, a desperate clown.
The desire to turn back, the love to amend,
Unraveling habits, unraveling at every turn.
A desperate attempt, from the quagmire of love,
Hope you find love worth savoring.
Guide me, let salvation begin,
A chance to improve, a revenge for love.
To improve, habits have to be broken,
A self-calculating, striving soul.
Thoughts entangled in the hopeful vision of love,
A chance to improve, a decision of love.
Witness the transformation, let it happen,
Inspire it, in the dance of love's liberation.
Let me enter again, a door a little ajar,
A love rebuilt, a healing star.
Watch as love appears, watch,
In the relaxation of love, a story retold.
I keep dreaming, maybe, just maybe,
Love's embrace, waving destiny.
With every step forward, love is becoming free,
Self-made agreement, the decree of love.
”
”
Manmohan Mishra
“
I ask you not to let other people take over your talent, and let yourself be the one in charge of your own life. Sleep enough, eat well, and avoid excesses. Everything always changes; nothing stays the same. Your time is my time. I share my energy with you and your show is my show. Do not fall into that abyss of self-pity. Lift your head up with pride and count on your talent to carry on forward. Let’s respect each other and return to our humbleness, to that joy and that love in our hearts to make the world know, by way of our presence on stage, that everything is possible with love and we have to keep on shining. How much longer will we be here? Let’s get through this adventure by enjoying ourselves”.
”
”
Antonio Drija (My life is a Cirque: A Latino in the Soleil)
“
The prevalence of parties among the people, and of factions in the senate, and of all evil practices attendant on them, had its origin at Rome, a few years before, during a period of tranquillity, and amid the abundance of all that mankind regarded as desirable. For, before the destruction of Carthage, the senate and people managed the affairs of the republic with mutual moderation and forbearance; there were no contests among the citizens for honor or ascendency; but the dread of an enemy kept the state in order. When that fear, however, was removed from their minds, licentiousness and pride, evils which prosperity loves to foster, immediately began to prevail; and thus peace, which they had so eagerly desired in adversity, proved, when they had obtained it, more grievous and fatal than adversity itself. The patricians carried their authority, and the people their liberty, to excess; every man took, snatched, and seized what he could. There was a complete division into two factions, and the republic was torn in pieces between them.
”
”
Sallust (The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Catiline (Penguin Classics))
“
...one of the main lessons is that people should not be separated into classes of the clean and the unclean, the worthy and the unworthy, the respectable and the unrespectable. … (missing) the point of their union with the Father, whose love is undiscriminating and inclusive, not gradated and excessive.
”
”
Garry Wills (What Jesus Meant)
“
Totalitarian regimes justify their existence by means of a philosophy of political monism, according to which the state is God on earth, unification under the heel of the divine state is salvation, and all means to such unification, however intrinsically wicked, are right and may be used without scruple. This political monism leads in practice to excessive privilege and power for the few And oppression for the mini, to discontent at home and war abroad. But excessive privilege and power are standing Temptations to pride, greed, vanity and cruelty; oppression results in fear and envy; warm breeze hatred, misery and despair. All such negative emotions are fatal to the spiritual life. Only the pure in heart and poor in spirit can come to the Knowledge of God. Hence, the attempt to impose more unity upon societies then their individual members are ready for makes it psychologically almost impossible for those individuals to realize they are unity with the divine Ground [of being] and with one another.
”
”
Aldous Huxley (The Perennial Philosophy)
“
Fasting can break the hold of sin and can eliminate the vices and addictions that are keeping us from becoming a faith-filled child of God. I pointed this out in Chapter Four of my book, From the Hub to the Heart. Sin had a deep hold on me and something had to give. I had never really said that I wanted to stop drinking, swearing and lying. But when I fasted, it caused a renewal of my soul. Prayer and fasting helped me to overcome all the impure thoughts, the vulgar mouth with which I swore 1500 times a day, the disrespect and pre-judging of all mankind, the excessive drinking, the prideful talk and the lying to everyone about who I was. Gradually
”
”
Andrew Lavallee (When You Fast: Jesus Has Provided The Solution)
“
Smite me now. I am not worthy of this company.”
“Ah, pride,” said the angel. “You must learn to temper its excesses. I’ll not smite you.
”
”
Storm Constantine (The Crown of Silence (The Chronicles of Magravandias, #2))
“
There was a time, when I was young, when the world looked very different. Perhaps, the world was the same as it is now and it was people who were different, I don’t know…. My parents used to despise greed, waste, selfishness, and the excessive pursuit of money. How did these values come to rule the world? Don’t we pride ourselves on our ability to rise above them for sake of the common good?
”
”
Sheila Matharu (Darkness)
“
The excessive pride breaks and blows all the best and real relationships.
”
”
Ehsan Sehgal
“
The town hall, which looked as if it had been designed by a committee of morons in an excess of alcohol and civic pride, stood in isolated splendour bounded by two bombed sites where rebuilding had only just begun.
”
”
P.D. James (Cover Her Face (Adam Dalgliesh #1))
“
Pride is like spittle. You can spit it out or swallow it. Pride is like excessive body weight. You can shed it. Do not treat it like body height which you have no power over. Get rid of it before it gets rid of you.
”
”
Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
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When you’re thinking, please remember this: excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate
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Ken Follett (The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1))
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My pride is not excessive; it is completely appropriate for man of my station and abilities.
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J.P. Christy (Elizabeth Bennet's Impertinent Letter: A Pride and Prejudice Variation)
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These remarks help us to see that there's more to the Christian understanding of humility than a simple negative definition like "the absence of pride" acknowledges. Humility frees us from excessive self-regard, thereby allowing our attention to turn elsewhere. [C. S. ] Lewis's observation that humble people take a "real interest" in what others say to them points to a major theme of Christian thinking about what humility makes possible: humility opens us up to the world outside our own heads.
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Richard Hughes Gibson (Charitable Writing: Cultivating Virtue Through Our Words)
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Pride is like spittle —you can spit it out or swallow it. It is like excessive body weight — you can shed it. Do not treat it like body height which you have no power over. Pride sets people back more than it moves them forward.
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Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
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An ideological theory explains everything: all the past, all the present, and all the future. This means that an ideologue can consider him or herself in possession of the complete truth (something forbidden to the self-consistent fundamentalist). There is no claim more totalitarian and no situation in which the worst excesses of pride are more likely to manifest themselves (and not only pride, but then deceit, once the ideology has failed to explain the world or predict its future).
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Jordan B. Peterson (Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life)
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Religious thinking induces excessive humility, which is pride in disguise.
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Sebastien Richard (Kingdom Fundamentals: What the Kingdom of God Means and What it Means for You | A Thorough and Biblical Exposition of the Kingdom of Heaven as Preached by Jesus)