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.

Always hold your head up but be careful to keep your nose at a friendly level.

A person wrapped up in himself makes a small package.

He who is enamored of himself will at least have the advantage of being inconvenienced by few rivals.

He who boasts of his accomplishments will heap ridicule.

Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, brags of his substance: they are but beggars who can count their worth.

Narcissist: psychoanalytic term for the person who loves himself more than his analyst; considered to be the manifestation of a dire mental disease whose successful treatment depends on the patient learning to love the analyst more and himself less.

Had we not loved ourselves at all, we could never have been obliged to love anything. So that self-love is the basis of all love.

Conceit is bragging about yourself. Confidence means you believe you can get the job done.