Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Self-Love
Self-love is a principle of action; but among no class of human beings has nature so profusely distributed this principle of life and action as through the whole sensitive family of genius.
Isaac D’Israeli—Literary Character of Men of Genius. Ch. XV.
He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.
George Eliot—Adam Bede. Ch. XXXIII.
Wer sich nicht zu viel dünkt ist viel mehr als er glaubt.
He who does not think too much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.
Goethe—Sprüche in Prosa. III.
A gentleman is one who understands and shows every mark of deference to the claims of self-love in others, and exacts it in return from them.
Hazlitt—Table Talk. On the Look of a Gentleman.
Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims. No. 3.
Voyez le beau rendez-vous qu’il me donne; cet homme là n’a jamais aimé que lui-même.
Behold, the fine appointment he makes with me; that man never did love any one but himself.
Mme. de Maintenon, when Louis XIV. in dying said, “Nous nous renverrons bientôt.” (We shall meet again).
Ofttimes nothing profits more
Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right
Well manag’d.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. VIII. L. 571.
Le moi est haïssable.
Egoism is hateful.
Pascal—Pensées Diverses.
To observations which ourselves we make,
We grow more partial for th’ observer’s sake.
Pope—Moral Essays. Ep. I. L. 11.
But respect yourself most of all.
Golden Verses of the Pythagoreans.
Sans doute
Je peux apprendre à coqueriquer: je glougloute.
Without doubt
I can teach crowing: for I gobble.
Rostand—Chanticleer. Act I. Sc. 2.
Et sonnant d’avance sa victoire,
Mon chant jaillit si net, si fier, si peremptoire,
Que l’horizon, saisi d’un rose tremblement,
M’obéit.
And sounding in advance its victory,
My song jets forth so clear, so proud, so peremptory.
That the horizon, seized with a rosy trembling,
Obeys me.
Rostand—Chanticleer. Act II. Sc. 3.
Je recule
Ébloui de me voir moi même tout vermeil
Et d’avoir, moi, le coq, fait élever le soleil.
I fall back dazzled at beholding myself all rosy red,
At having, I myself, caused the sun to rise.
Rostand—Chanticleer. Act II. Sc. 3.
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
As self-neglecting.
Henry V. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 74.
O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four times seven years; and since I could distinguish betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man that knew how to love himself.
Othello. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 312.
I to myself am dearer than a friend.
Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act II. Sc. 6. L. 23.
I am the most concerned in my own interests.
Terence—Andria. IV. 1.
L’amour-propre offensé ne pardonne jamais.
Offended self-love never forgives.
Vizée—Les Aveux Difficiles. VII.
This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind:—it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.
Voltaire—Philosophical Dictionary. Self-Love.