Home / Topics / Ego Quotes

Ego Quotes

Browse 3429 quotes about Ego.

Ego Quotes

“Tragedy massages the human ego even as comedy deflates it. ... Tragedy pits us against large foes and the trip wire is our own character. ... In comedy we fall afoul of one another. Comedy depends on social life, on our behavior in groups. In tragedy you can observe one human against the gods. In comedy it's one human versus other humans and often one man (or woman if I'm writing it) against her own worst impulses.”

Ifs Men Writing Humans Character Fall Social Comedy Groups Worst Depends Ego Behavior Tragedy Impulse One Man Versus Foe Wire Pits Social Life Massage

Author:Rita Mae Brown

“In Business School they taught us about cash flow, not about corporate politics; about return on equity, not about egos and pride. Oh, there were optional courses on 'Organizational Behavior' and 'Managerial Skills,' but these were a little too bloodless to convey what I learned on the job.”

Source: Powerplay: what really happened at Bendix

“You can't make Christ funny. He's self-aware, he's too flexible within the situation. It's rigidity, it's when the ego takes over and the behavior becomes inappropriate that it becomes funny.”

Self Christ Situation Ego Behavior Flexible Inappropriate Rigidity

Author:John Cleese

“Behind everyone's learned behaviors and odd eccentricities lurks a soul, ready to make contact if only coaxed out through a crack in the ego.”

Ifs Soul Behinds Ready Ego Behavior Contact Odd Cracks Eccentricity Learned Behavior

Author:Ram Dass

“In Buddhist ideology, the conventional self is that which is constructed in a way by the use of the pronoun, and when you realize there is no absolute ego there, no disconnected one, self, or ego, then that actually strengthens your conventional ego. It does so in the sense that then you realize it's a construction, and you can strengthen it in order to help others, or do whatever you're trying to do, it's not like you no longer know who you are. Then you can organize your behavior by using your ego, as it's now the pronoun.”

Knows Way Trying Doe Self Helping Use Order Realizing Like You Ego Behavior Absolutes Who You Are Helping Others Ideology Buddhist Construction Conventional Organize Disconnected Pronouns

Author:Robert Thurman

“Ego is a structure that is erected by a neurotic individual who is a member of a neurotic culture against the facts of the matter. And culture, which we put on like an overcoat, is the collectivized consensus about what sort of neurotic behaviors are acceptable.”

Matter Facts Culture Individual Members Ego Behavior Structure Acceptable Consensus Neurotic Mind Blowing Overcoat

Author:Terence McKenna

“Mitchell had answered that, as far as he understood them, mystical experiences were significant only to the extent that they changed a person's conception of reality, and if that changed conception led to a change in behavior and action, a loss of ego.”

Ifs Persons Reality Action Loss Changed Ego Behavior Understood Significant Conception Mystical Mystical Experiences

Book:The Marriage Plot: A Novel

Source: The Marriage Plot: A Novel

“Man is not only part of a field, but a part and member of his group. When people are together, as when they are at work, then the most unnatural behavior, which only appears in late stages or abnormal cases, would be to behave as separate Egos. Under normal circumstances they work in common, each a meaningfully functioning part of the whole.”

People Men Whole Would Be Together Common Cases Groups Stage Fields Hard Work Circumstances Members Ego Behavior Normal Late Behave Unnatural Abnormal

Author:Max Wertheimer

“The ego isn't wrong; it's just unconscious. When you observe the ego in yourself, you are beginning to go beyond it. Don't take the ego too seriously. When you detect egoic behavior in yourself, smile. At times you may even laugh. How could humanity have been taken in by this for so long? Above all, know that the ego isn't personal. It isn't who you are. If you consider the ego to be your personal problem, that's just more ego.”

Ifs Knows Life May Long Has Beens Problem Humanity Laughing Taken Ego Behavior Who You Are Unconscious Personal Problems

Book:A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

Source: A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose