The egocentric is always frustrated, simply because the condition of self-perfection is self-surrender. There must be a willingness to die to the lower part of self, before there can be a birth to the nobler.

Fulton J. Sheen
About This Quote

This quote is a beautiful reflection on the egocentric mentality of human beings. In this world, we are constantly pitted against ourselves. We constantly judge ourselves and constantly compare ourselves with others. We will constantly look at ourselves from a self-centered perspective, viewing everything from our own lens.

The ego constantly seeks a better version of self, constantly trying to better itself. The ego constantly strives for more and more personal success, trying to become more and more perfect. This constant striving catches many people up in a cycle of negativity that keeps them stuck in the cycle of their incessant striving for perfection while never actually achieving it.

They cannot achieve perfection because they do not want to give up on life and they do not give up on life because they want to achieve perfection.

Source: Seven Words Of Jesus And Mary: Lessons From Cana And Calvary

Some Similar Quotes
  1. The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. - Elie Wiesel

  2. Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another? We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We... - Haruki Murakami

  3. The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace. - Mahatma Gandhi

  4. He suddenly recalled from Plato's Symposium: People were hermaphrodites until God split then in two, and now all the halves wander the world over seeking one another. Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost. - Milan Kundera

  5. It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters, - Amit Ray

More Quotes By Fulton J. Sheen
  1. The difference between the love of a man and the love of a woman is that a man will always give reasons for loving, but a woman gives no reasons for loving.

  2. Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.

  3. It takes three to make love, not two: you, your spouse, and God. Without God people only succeed in bringing out the worst in one another. Lovers who have nothing else to do but love each other soon find there is nothing else. Without a...

  4. Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked.

  5. If you don't behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave.

Related Topics