self-centered

I hurt myself deeply, though at the time I had no idea how deeply. I should have learned many things from that experience, but when I look back on it, all I gained was one single, undeniable fact. That ultimately I am a person who can do evil. I never consciously tried to hurt anyone, yet good intentions notwithstanding, when necessity demanded, I could become completely self-centred, even cruel. I was the kind of person who could, using some plausible excuse, inflict on a person I cared for a wound that would never heal.

Greed is the fast-track to poverty.

If I__ conceited enough to believe I__ invincible, then maybe it will take me doing the very thing I swore I would never do to understand that I__ not as wonderful as I thought I was.

Trying to destroy yourself gives a pretty clear message and it's not one I think you'd like. Sounds a bit like, __'m too self-centered to be constructive, so I have to open a vein_

To be an end in myself is to bring an end to myself.

The shortest short-term investment is to serve ourselves.

The thing that I__ most likely to collapse under is not the weight of the stresses that stand around me, but the ego that sits within me.

If I can__ quite figure out what an ego is, all I have to do is look for the thing that__ killing itself in the very act of feeding itself.

If I__ my biggest fan, the only person in the stadium is probably me.

These ideas fit the experience of these Japanese women who often talked about searching for or trying to develop "self" (jibun). Cultivating or polishing self by doing tea ceremony or being a good mother, for example, had a good connotation for the Japanese because it meant that you were trying to go beyond your narrow self and connect self with the larger world beyond social norms. But developing self in the new way these women used it meant to develop self according to just what you want to do or in a way that enhances your own possibilities in the world. Would others see choosing a life for self as selfish? These women had to maintain some ambiguity because they were wandering into dangerous territory when they wanted to travel just to enjoy themselves, or keep working and not marry. In a society that honored the cultivation of a larger self, would they themselves someday suffer for having chosen the self-centered way?

If it__ about me, I can be assured that there will be a bunch of empty chairs in the auditorium of my life; save the one I__ sitting in.

Everyone lives a self-centered life...whether its trivial like what's for breakfast, or more ambitious, like achieving some lofty goal, a person is constantly on her own mind.

I am most thankful for what I don__ have, for had my life__ wish list been filled in the manner I had chosen I would be steeped in meaningless trinkets verses bathed in God__ treasures.

It is not your beauty, success or money that should define you; neither should your church calling, your charitable contributions or talents. Humility is the cornerstone of character, by which God judges our truth worth, and wisdom is the door he opens when we use it.

Part of not being a self-centered asshole, Colin reasoned, is doing things with your friends even when you don't want to.

A compass calibrated by my greed is a rather shrewd way to legitimize my agenda. However, true north on a compass such as this is a straight line to the edge of a really big cliff.

If I have attached anything to sacrifice other than loss, I have at some level assumed a pay-off. And if I__e assumed a pay-off, I__ only assuming a sacrifice.

If you haven__ figured it out yet, an absolutely certain way to lose something as quickly as possible is to forget the privilege you have to possess it in the first place.