Cynthia Ozick Quotes

We're a whole culture of people who have a really hard time seeing beyond themselves.

A person wrapped up in himself makes a small package.

The greatest tragedy for any human being is going through their entire lives believing the only perspective that matters is their own.

In my younger years my dedication may have expressed itself egotistically.

I'm not comfortable with just me, me, me. That's boring.

Whoever claims to understand another person completely, is either entirely ignorant of himself, or else has a nature so small that he can measure it easily, and supposes it to be the standard of every other nature.

I think everybody identified at a pretty young age that I was fairly entranced with myself. And that I had to be tempered.

I was deaf and dumb and blind to all but me, myself and I.

It's normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self's agenda.

I've certainly had a lot of experiences in my life where I was much too self-centered.

We reproach people for talking about themselves; but it is the subject they treat best.

The fundamental law of nature is to not know too much about yourself.

Egoic consciousness is the one we all normally operate with, until we are told there is something else! Every culture teaches egoic consciousness in different ways. At that level it is all about me, my preferences, my choices, my needs, my desires and me and my group as the central reference point.

I like to think I'm not a narcissist, but truth be told, we all have those sides to our character.

If I have not the power to put myself in the place of other people, but must be continually burrowing inward, I shall never be the magnanimous creative person I wish to be. Yet I am hypnotized by the workings of the individual, alone, and am continually using myself as a specimen.

People are more interested in being visible than they are in loving other people.

I don't have the time or the desire to gaze at my navel.

You must learn to perceive as your self that which lies outside you. Looking only within oneself leads to a hardening in oneself, to a higher egotism.

I don't focus on anyone but myself.

Irritability is immaturity of character. If you are subject to being cross and unpleasant with others for no apparent reason, you need to come face-to-face with the fact that you are thinking too much of yourself. After all, your feelings are not the most important thing in this world.

I believe man suffers from an appalling ignorance of his own nature. I produce my own view in the belief that it may be something like the truth.

In men this blunder still you find; all think their little set mankind.

I’d always thought I was above being fascinated by anyone but myself.

I had an occasional flash of understanding, but then got selfishly wrapped up again in my own problems and pleasures.

Agreeable then to my present inclination, I formed the object of my own worship, which was no other than my own understanding.