It is a great delusion in those whose understanding has been darkened by self-love, to think that there is any obedience in the subject who tries to draw the superior to what he wishes.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
For thousands of years, human beings have been obsessed with beauty, truth, love, honor, altruism, courage, social relationships, art, and God. They all go together as subjective experiences, and it's a straw man to set God up as the delusion. If he is, then so is truth itself or beauty itself.
The delusions of self-love cannot be prevented, but intellectual misconceptions as to the means of achieving success may be corrected.
In the vanity of self-consciousness one feels at a long remove above the ordinary love and trustfulness of a simple and pure heart.
Obedience is detachment from the self. This is the most radical detachment of all. But what is the self? The self is the principle of reason and responsibility in us. It is the root of freedom, it is what makes us men.
Self-delusion is one of the funniest things there is.
Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults.
He who aims at making an entire and perfect oblation of himself, in addition to his will, must offer his understanding, which is a further and the highest degree of obedience.
I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.
Respect for self is the beginning of cultivating virtue in men and women.
The diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have reason to applaud and love himself.