Quotations about:
    ego

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]

Mark Twain’s Notebook [ed. Paine (1935)]

Tell me what you brag about and I’ll tell you what you lack.

(Other Authors and Sources)

Spanish proverb

PAROLLES: Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this; for it will come to pass
That every braggart shall be found an ass.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet

All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 4, sc. 3, l. 356ff (4.3.356-358) (1602?)
    (Source)

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don’t speak well of your-self.

[Voulez-vous qu’on croie du bien de vous? N’en dites point.]

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher

Pensées, # 4 (1670)

Alt. trans.:

• "If you want people to think well of you, do not speak well of yourself."
• "Do you want people to think well of you? Don't say a word about it."

To have a thing is little, if you’re not allowed to show it;
And to know a thing is nothing, unless others know you know it.

Charles Neaves (1800-1876) Scottish judge, theologian, critic, poet

(Attributed)

Quoted in Booth Epigrams, Ancient and Modern (1865).

Say nothing good of yourself, you will be distrusted; say nothing bad of yourself, you will be taken at your word.

Joseph Roux (1834-1886) French Catholic priest

Meditations of a Parish Priest: Thoughts, Part 5 “Joy, Suffering, Fortune,” #22 (1886) [tr. Hapgood]
    (Source)

But when all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never.

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist

“The Art of Conversation,” Essays, Vol. 3, ch. 8 (1588) [tr. Cotton (1877)]
    (Source)

Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for someone to complain to.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]

The New York Evening Mail (15 Nov 1917)

A year later he wrote: "Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her head on." [In Defense of Women (1918)]

This sad little lizard told me that he was a Brontosaurus on his mother’s side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them. Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is in short supply.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer

Time Enough for Love (1973)

I know that a man who shows me his wealth is like the beggar who shows me his poverty; they are both looking for alms from me, the rich man for the alms of my envy, the poor man for the alms of my guilt.

Ben Hecht (1894-1964) American writer, director, producer, journalist

A Child of the Century (1954)

We cease loving ourselves if no one loves us.

[On cesse de s’aimer si quelqu’un ne nous aime.]

Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) Swiss-French writer, woman of letters, critic, salonist [Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, Madame de Staël, Madame Necker]

Sophie, or The Secret Sentiments [Sophie, ou les sentiments secrets], Act 2, sc. 8 (1790)

Doesn’t matter how pretty you are. What’s important is how pretty you feel. No one feels pretty when they hear “no” often enough.

Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author

Skin Game (2014)

That hatred springs more from self-contempt than from a legitimate grievance is seen in the intimate connection between hatred and a guilty conscience.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman

The True Believer, ch. 69 (1951)

Back then I wanted to be right about my estimate of my abilities. Now I want to be wrong.

James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet

Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001)

Be wiser than other people, if you can; but do not tell them so.

Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]

Letter to his son, #104 (29 Nov 1745)
    (Source)

When my friend does something stupid, he is just my friend doing something stupid. When I do something stupid, I have deeply betrayed myself.

James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet

Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001)

Laziness is the sin most willingly confessed to, since it implies talents greater than have yet appeared.

James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet

Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001)

When you’re good at something, you’ll tell everyone. When you’re great at something, they’ll tell you.

Walter Payton (1954-1999) American football player

(Attributed)

It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]

(Attributed)

There are two insults which no human being will endure: The assertion that he hasn’t a sense of humor, and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble.

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) American novelist, playwright

Main Street, ch. 31, sec. 2 (1920)
    (Source)

Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness, and cunning. But all those things will be forgiven him, indeed, they will be regarded as high qualities, if he can make of them the means to achieve great ends.

Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) French statesman and soldier

The Edge of the Sword, “Of Prestige” (2) (1934) [tr. Hopkins (1960)]

Things said or done long years ago,
Or things I did not do or say
But thought that I might say or do,
Weigh me down, and not a day
But something is recalled,
My conscience or my vanity appalled.

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) Irish poet and dramatist

“Vacillation,” st. 4 (1932), The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)
    (Source)

If crisis management requires cold and even brutal measures to show determination, it also imposes the need to show the opponent a way out. Grandstanding is good for the ego but bad for foreign policy. […] Many wars have started because no line of retreat was left open.

Henry Kissinger (b. 1923) German-American diplomat

Years of Upheaval, ch. 12 (1982)
    (Source)

Unless you intend to kill him immediately thereafter, never kick a man in the balls. Not even symbolically. Or perhaps especially not symbolically.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer

Friday [Friday Jones] (1982)

Harder to laugh at the comedy if it’s about you, harder to cry at the tragedy if it isn’t.

James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet

Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001)

The most perilous moment is often when an adversary is seemingly prepared to retreat and then is jolted into new defiance by an assault on his self-esteem.

Henry Kissinger (b. 1923) German-American diplomat

Years of Upheaval, ch. 12 (1982)

Properly regarded, male vanity is a virtue, not a vice. Treated correctly, it makes him enormously pleasanter to deal with.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer

Friday [Friday Jones] (1982)

If ever there’s a tomorrow where we’re not together, there is something you must remember. You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]

(Misattributed)
    (Source)

Christopher Robin to Pooh Bear. The quotation is broadly attributed to Milne and Winnie the Pooh, but is actually from the 1997 Disney video Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin, written by Carter Crocker and Karl Geurs, based on the characters created by Milne.

Wants what he wants when he wants it — and thinks that constitutes a natural law.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer

Methuselah’s Children [Lazarus Long] (1958)

It’s what people know about themselves inside that makes them afraid.

Ernest Tidyman (1928-1984) American author and screenwriter

High Plains Drifter (film) (1973)

Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of a great design as of chance.

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble

Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims] (1665-1678)

When we are pleased with ourselves, we are pleased with others.

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher

The Philosophy of Elbert Hubbard [ed. Edward Hubbard II] (1930)

Would you have a friend who talks to you the way you talk to yourself?

Carolyn Ann "Callie" Khouri (b. 1957) American screenwriter, producer, director, feminist

Commencement Address, Sweet Briar College (22 May 1994)
    (Source)

Let us believe neither half of the good people tell us of ourselves, nor half the evil they say of others.

Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn (1792-1870) French-Swiss poet

(Attributed)
    (Source)

Neither praise, nor dispraise thy self; thy Actions will do it enough.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer

Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 338 (1725)
    (Source)

Thank goodness, many years ago, I had a preceptor, for whom my admiration has never died, and he had a favorite saying, one that I trust I try to live by. It was: always take your job seriously, never yourself.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)

Speech, New England “Forward to ’54” Dinner, Boston (21 Sep 1953)

Watch how a man takes praise, and there you have the measure of him.

Thomas Burke (1886-1945) British author

In T.P.’s Weekly (8 Jun 1928)

BADGER: You think you’re better than other people!
MAL: Just the ones I’m better than.

Jane Espenson (b. 1964) American television writer and producer

Firefly, 1×04 “Shindig” (1 Nov 2002)

Whenever men cease fighting through necessity, they go to fighting through ambition, which is so powerful in human breasts that, whatever high rank men climb to, never does ambition abandon them.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist

The Discourses on Livy, Book 1, ch. 37 (1517) [tr. Gilbert (1958)]
    (Source)

Alt. trans.:

• "[Ambition] is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied."
• "For when no longer urged to war on one another by necessity, they are urged by ambition, which has such dominion in their hearts that it never leaves them to whatsoever heights they climb." [tr. Thomson (1883)]
• "Whenever the necessity for fighting is taken away from them, they fight for the same of ambition, which is so powerful a passion in the human breast that, no matter the rank to which a man may rise, he never abandons it." [tr. Bondanella (1997)]

There is no limit to what a man can do so long as he does not care a straw who gets the credit for it.

Charles Edward "C. E." Montague (1867-1928) English journalist, novelist, essayist

“Any Cure?” sec. 3, Disenchantment (1922)
    (Source)

Montague did not take credit for the phrase, referring to it as a saying.

This was not the first time Montague used the phrase. In a memoir about journalist William T. Arnold in 1906, he stated that a phrase that "someone has said" was a particular favorite of Arnold's: "There is no limit to what a man can do who does not care who gains the credit for it."

More discussion of the quote and its origins: A Man May Do an Immense Deal of Good, If He Does Not Care Who Gets the Credit – Quote Investigator. See also Truman.

People in general will much better bear being told of their vices or crimes than of their little failings or weaknesses.

Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]

Letter to his son, #204 (26 Nov 1749)
    (Source)

Men are more ready to sacrifice their lives than their livelihood: and to sacrifice their own importance often comes hardest of all.

B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, military historian (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)

Thoughts on War, ch. 10 (1944)

But the truth is, that no man is much regarded by the rest of the world, except where the interest of others is involved in his fortune. The common employments or pleasures of life, love or opposition, loss or gain, keep almost every mind in perpetual agitation. If any man would consider how little he dwells upon the condition of others, he would learn how little the attention of others is attracted by himself.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic

The Rambler, #159 (24 Sep 1751)
    (Source)

It is so pleasant to come across people more stupid than ourselves. We love them at once for being so.

Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) English writer, humorist [Jerome Klapka Jerome]

“On Cats and Dogs,” The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1889)
    (Source)

We measure the excellency of other men by some excellency we conceive to be in ourselves.

John Selden (1584-1654) English jurist, antiquary, politician, Orientalist

Table Talk (1689)

We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don’t care for.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) Austrian writer

Aphorisms (1905)

Power always Sincerely, conscientiously, de très bon foi, believes itself Right. Power always thinks it has a great Soul and vast Views, beyond the Comprehension of the Weak; and that it is doing God Service when it is violating all his Laws.

John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)

Letter to Thomas Jefferson (2 Feb 1816)
    (Source)

de très bon foi = "very candidly"

There is no method more likely to cure passion and rashness, than the frequent and attentive consideration of one’s own weaknesses: this will work into the mind an habitual sense of the need one has of being pardoned, and will bring down the swelling pride and obstinacy of heart, which are the cause of hasty passion.

James Burgh (1714-1775) British politician and writer

The Dignity of Human Nature, Sec. 5 “Miscellaneous Thoughts on Prudence in Conversation” (1754)
    (Source)

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet

Journal (1840-05-06)

The only happy author in this world is he who is below the care of reputation.

Washington Irving (1783-1859) American author [pseud. for Geoffrey Crayon]

Tales of a Traveler, Part 2 “The Poor-Devil Author” (1824)

Only bad writers think that their work is really good.

Anne Enright (b. 1962) Irish writer

In “Ten Rules for Writing Fiction,” The Guardian (20 Feb 2010)
    (Source)

Praise your friends, and let your friends praise you.

James Burgh (1714-1775) British politician and writer

The Dignity of Human Nature, Sec. 5 “Miscellaneous Thoughts on Prudence in Conversation” (1754)
    (Source)

Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind; it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persuades us that they escape the notice of others, and disposes us to resent censures lest we should confess them to be just.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic

The Rambler, #155 (10 Sep 1751)
    (Source)

Self-made men are most alwus apt tew be a leetle too proud ov the job.

[Self-made men are almost always apt to be a little too proud of the job.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]

Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax for 1873, “05 – May,” “Kold Slau” (1873)
    (Source)

Where men are the most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken, and have there given reins to passion, without that proper deliberation and suspense, which can alone secure them from the grossest absurdities.

David Hume (1711-1776) Scottish philosopher, economist, historian, empiricist

An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Sec. 9.13 “Conclusion, Pt. 1” (1751)