What I want to fix your attention on is the vast overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence -- moral, cultural, social or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how 'democracy' (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient dictatorships, and by the same methods The basic proposal of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be 'undemocratic.' Children who are fit to proceed may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval's attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT. We may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when 'I'm as good as you' has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented who are they to overtop their fellows And anyway, the teachers -- or should I say nurses -- will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men.
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Conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty.
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Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.
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We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit.
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Sexually,we are all competing for the same seat on the bus and the thing that holds it together is the tightly held conceit that we are all sexual gods. How can I believe in my own uniqueness when there's a cat out there exactly the same as me
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There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others. The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility. You may remember, when I was talking about sexual morality, I warned you that the centre of Christian morals did not lie there. Well, now, we have come to the centre. According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.
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Conceit is incompatible with understanding.
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Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they are fools. This is the first step towards becoming either estimable or agreeable; and until it be taken there is no hope. The sooner the discovery is made the better, as there is more time and power for taking advantage of it. Sometimes the great truth is found out too late to apply to it any effectual remedy. Sometimes it is never found at all; and these form the desperate and inveterate causes of folly, self-conceit, and impertinence.
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You are providing for your disciples a show of wisdom without the reality. For, acquiring by your means much information unaided by instruction, they will appear to possess much knowledge, while, in fact, they will, for the most part, know nothing at all; and, moreover, be disagreeable people to deal with, as having become wise in their own conceit, instead of truly wise.
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Self-conceit may lead to self-destruction.
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What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.
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The smaller the mind the greater the conceit.
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Calm self-confidence is as far from conceit as the desire to earn a decent living is remote from greed.
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Conceit is God's gift to little men.
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Conceit in weakest bodies works the strongest.
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Infatuated, half through conceit, half through love of my art, I achieve the impossible working as no one else ever works.
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The less their ability, the more their conceit.
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Philippians 2:3:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves
(NIV)
Do nothing from factional motives [through contentiousness, strife, selfishness, or for unworthy ends] or prompted by conceit and empty arrogance. Instead, in the true spirit of humility (lowliness of mind) let each regard the others as better than and superior to himself [thinking more highly of one another than you do of yourselves].
(AMP)
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
(KJV)
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Conceit is an insuperable obstacle to all progress.
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Nature abhors a vacuum. When a head lacks brains, nature fills it with conceit.
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There is a difference between conceit and confidence. Conceit is bragging about yourself. Confidence means you believe you can get the job done.
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Conceit is bragging about yourself. Confidence means you believe you can get the job done.
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Of great wealth there is no real use, except in its distribution, the rest is just conceit.
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Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, brags of his substance: they are but beggars who can count their worth.
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Above all, you must fight conceit, envy, and every kind of ill-feeling in your heart.
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Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
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Frivolity is inborn, conceit acquired by education.
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The world tolerates conceit from those who are successful, but not from anybody else.
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See the man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope for a fool than for him. Proverbs 26:7
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What is the first business of one who practices philosophy To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.
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