4. Self

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger and not thine own lips. Proverbs 27:2

The foolish man is full of selfishness; he toils day and night, greedy for wealth, as if he will never grow old, or die. > Russian saying

There is no room for God in him who is full of himself. > Service of the Heart

I would prefer to combat the “I’m special” feelings not by the thought “I’m not more special than anyone else,” but by the feeling, “Everyone is as special as me.” > C. S. Lewis

The man who lives for self alone, lives for the meanest mortal known. > Joaquin Miller

Be not like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow. > George Elliot

When a person feels disposed to overestimate his own importance, let him remember that mankind got along very well before his birth, and that in all probability they will get along very well after his death. > Charles Simmons

We are very apt t be full of ourselves, instead of Him that made what we so much value, and but for whom we have no reason to value ourselves. For we have nothing that we can call our own, no, not ourselves; for we are all but tenants, and at will too, of the great Lord of ourselves, and of this great farm, the world that we live upon. > William Penn

The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues the better we like him. > Ralph Waldo Emerson

Use what talents you possess – the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. > Harry Van Dyke

Man is certainly stark mad. He cannot make a worm and yet he will be making gods by the dozens. > Michael de Montaigne

The highest and most profitable reading is the true knowledge and consideration of ourselves. > Thomas à Kempis

There are few people who are more often in the wrong than those who cannot endure to be thought so. > Francois de La Rochefoucauld

See also Mark 8:34-38; 10:42-45; John 15:13