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Narcissism Quotes

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Narcissism Quotes

“As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves.”

LoveHas BeensAmericaSufferingTurnsIndividualNationsSocialBelovedFallenAbandonedAncestorNarcissismEchoesVirginsConceitConceited
Book:The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America
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“The nobility of the human spirit grows harder for me to believe in. War, zealotry, greed, malls, narcissism. I see a backhanded nobility in excessive, impractical outlays of cash prompted by nothing loftier than a species joining hands and saying “I bet we can do this.” Yes, the money could be better spent on Earth. But would it? Since when has money saved by government red-lining been spent on education and cancer research? It is always squandered. Let’s squander some on Mars. Let’s go out and play.”

BelieveHumansWarPlayHandsGovernmentEarthSpiritGrowsCan DoResearchRedHarderSpeciesGreedCancerSavedCashNarcissismMarsHuman SpiritNobilityJoiningMallsZealotryCancer ResearchJoining Hands
Book:Packing for Mars
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“This story ["The Depressed Person"] was the most painful thing I ever wrote. It's about narcissism, which is a part of depression. The character has traits of myself. I really lost friends while writing on that story, I became ugly and unhappy and just yelled at people. The cruel thing with depression is that it's such a self-centered illness - Dostoevsky shows that pretty good in his "Notes from Underground". The depression is painful, you're sapped/consumed by yourself; the worse the depression, the more you just think about yourself and the stranger and repellent you appear to others.”

PeopleThinkingWritingPersonsSelfCharacterStoriesShowsLostNotesPainfulIllnessUglyStrangerUnhappyAbout YourselfTraitsNarcissismConsumedSelf CenteredLost FriendPainful ThingsNotes From The UndergroundDepressed Person
Author:David Foster Wallace
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“Walter had never liked cats. They'd seemed to him the sociopaths of the pet world, a species domesticated as an evil necessary for the control of rodents and subsequently fetishized the way unhappy countries fetishize their militaries, saluting the uniforms of killers as cat owners stroke their animals' lovely fur and forgive their claws and fangs. He'd never seen anything in a cat's face but simpering incuriosity and self-interest; you only had to tease one with a mouse-toy to see where it's true heart lay...cats were all about using people”

PeopleWorldWayHeartSelfCountryFacesEvilInterestAnimalCatForgivingLaysSpeciesLovelyUnhappyPetOwnersKillersToysNarcissismUniformsMiceStrokesSelf InterestFurFangsTeaseClawsSociopathRodentsTrue HeartUsing PeopleDomesticated Animals
Book:Freedom: A Novel
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“Depending on the year or the therapist he was seeing, he'd learned to ascribe just about every facet of his character as a psychological reaction to his parents' fighting: his laziness, his overachieving, his tendency to isolate, his tendency to seduce, his hypochondria, his sense of invulnerability, his self-loathing, his narcissism.”

YearsSelfCharacterFightingParentSeeingReactionsTendenciesPsychologicalLazinessNarcissismTherapistsLoathingFacetsSeducingSelf LoathingInvulnerabilityOverachieving
Book:The Marriage Plot: A Novel
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“Since our technology is really just an extension of ourselves, we don’t have to have contempt for its manipulability in the way we might with actual people. It’s all one big endless loop. We like the mirror and the mirror likes us. To friend a person is merely to include the person in our private hall of flattering mirrors.”

PeopleWayPersonsBigsMightTechnologyMirrorsEndlessLikesHallsContemptNarcissismExtensionsFlatteringLoops
Book:Farther Away
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“Because the enormous narcissism of their parents deprived Will and Tom of suitable role models, both brothers learned to identify with absence. Consequently, even if something beneficial fortuitously entered their lives they immediately treated it as temporary. By the time they were teenagers they were already accustomed to a discontinuous lifestyle marked by constant threats of abandonment and the lack of any emotional stability. Unfortunately, "accustomed to" here is really synonymous with "damaged by.”

IfsParentRolesEmotionalBrotherModelsConstantThreatAbsenceLifestyleEnormousTreatedTeenagerTemporaryStabilityRole ModelsTomsNarcissismAccustomedDeprivedBeneficialAbandonmentSuitableEmotional Stability
Book:Mark Z. Danielewski's House of leaves
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“The mother gazes at the baby in her arms, and the baby gazes at his mother's face and finds himself therein... provided that the mother is really looking at the unique, small, helpless being and not projecting her own expectations, fears, and plans for the child. In that case, the child would find not himself in his mother's face, but rather the mother's own projections. This child would remain without a mirror, and for the rest of his life would be seeking this mirror in vain.”

ChildrenWould BeFacesMotherCasesPlansBabyArmsUniqueExpectationsMirrorsSeekingVainNarcissismHelplessProjection
Author:Donald Woods Winnicott
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“If you're going to play what-if --which, by the way, is a huge waste of time and energy, not to mention an act of supreme, center-of-the-universe narcissism-- you have to play it both ways. If you're going to imagine yourself as an accidental villain, you have to give yourself equal time as an unwitting hero. As somebody who prevented God-knows-what dire disaster simply by doing exactly the things you did.”

IfsKnowsWayGivingPlayUniverseEnergyImagineHugeHeroEqualWasteDisasterSupremeWhat IfWasting TimeVillainNarcissismGod KnowsTime And EnergyCenter Of The Universe
Author:Jefferson Bass
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“When I look at narcissism through the vulnerability lens, I see the shame-based fear of being ordinary. I see the fear of never feeling extraordinary enough to be noticed, to be lovable, to belong, or to cultivate a sense of purpose.”

LooksEnoughFeelingsPurposeFearOrdinaryShameExtraordinaryVulnerabilityNarcissismLensesLovable
Book:Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
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“Vanity, right?" Nash reappeared in the living room with an open bag of potato chips. "I nominate my venerable brother. He likes to play hero, and one look at him should establish the vanity angle." "Nash!" I really shouldn't have been surprised by the dig. But I was. "What?" He raised one brow at me in challenge. "It's okay to call me jealous, but not to call him vain?" "Awareness of one's obvious advantages doesn't imply vanity," Tod insisted calmly. Nash turned on him. "Does it imply narcissism?" Tod huffed. "This coming from the guy who owns more hair products than his girlfriend.”

ShouldLooksDoeHas BeensPlayGuyChallengesRoomsAwarenessBrotherProductsHairHeroAdvantageOkayRaisedObviousLikesVanityVainGirlfriendBagsCall MeJealousNarcissismAngleChipsPotatoesLiving RoomBrowsPotato ChipsHair Products
Book:Soul Screamers: Volume 4
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“These illustrations suggest four general maxims[...]. The first is: remember that your motives are not always as altruistic as they seem to yourself. The second is: don't over-estimate your own merits. The third is: don't expect others to take as much interest in you as you do yourself. And the fourth is: don't imagine that most people give enough thought to you to have any special desire to persecute you.”

PeopleGivingFirstsEnoughSeemsRememberDesireInterestFourImagineSpecialThirdsMeritMotiveFourthImagine ThatNarcissismMaximsParanoiaIllustrationSelf Centeredness
Book:The Conquest of Happiness
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