Self Aggrandizement Quotes

“Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration.”
― Steve Martin, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life

“Being with her was like being backstage during an amateurish, ridiculous play.”
― Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust

“Putting words onto paper—when it is done as an honest act of search or connection, rather than as an act of manipulation, performance, self-aggrandizement or self-protection—is a holy act.”
― Pat Schneider, How the Light Gets In: Writing as a Spiritual Practice

“By aggrandizing one's own abilities and achievements, the grandiose person remains out of touch with who they truly are and as such, remains prone to crossing the boundaries of others.”
― Steven Franssen, Make Self-Knowledge Great Again

“I had never thought much of genealogy. A lot of wasted time collecting the names of the dead. Then stringing those names, like skulls upon a wire, into an entirely private and thus irrelevant narrative, lacking any historical significance. The narcissistic pastime of nostalgic bores.”
― Joshua Ferris, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

“Self-aggrandizement and lust for power, the maelstrom of baser instincts - disfigured people.”
― Sir Kristian Goldmund Aumann

“You have to stay out of the game. It’s deadly and no one ever wins. Everyone is a loser. Even seeming wins are short-lived and have the taste of bitterness mixed in with the satisfaction of personal gain. The ego is exclusive by nature. While the spirit seeks to include, the ego is unashamedly manipulative in its culling of people. The intention of self-aggrandisement is barely even covered over. The soul does not see people in terms of what it can gain. It seeks to share. It seeks to create by extension of its own and others’ true nature. The ego is extremely changeable. It has no stability. Constantly guarding against attack and looking out for its own advantage, its perceptions and thus feelings towards others are ever-shifting. This creates unhappiness. The more we veer away from our true nature, the more unhappy we feel. When we align with our better self, we feel happy again. And so the process continues until the spaces between happiness are not as long and arduous. The presence or absence of personal peace is our barometer. It will guide us even if we are not sure of the way.”
― Donna Goddard, Circles of Separation

“Find your own truths as best you can, only remember that few are courageous enough to tell a tale of which they are not the hero.”
― Alida Van Gores, Mermaid's Song

“Fuck anybody who’d call a hill a mountain and name it after themselves.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“In solitude and when fatigued, one is after all inclined to take oneself for a prophet.”
― Albert Camus, The Fall

“Many of the disasters that will befall this clan will be due to the pernicious habit of imbuing one's own little existence with an exaggerated importance.”
― Takashi Matsuoka, Autumn Bridge