Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

You don't want to vilify your ego.

It's very healthy to be aware of your ego.

I don't trust anyone... It's something that I have to live with, and I have to find the balance of who I want in my life and who isn't good for me.

Life's too short to deal with other people's insecurities.

Although I am a public figure, I'm still a little shy. I don't think my own personality is important. I prefer to keep some small dosage of privacy.

I always knew I was different and that people had opinions about me. I guess I learned as best as I can to shield out a lot and live my life from within.

Our vanity is hardest to wound precisely when our pride has just been wounded.

I think it comes from far away inside me, to be strong to survive everything that comes my way. I think, going back to the beginning, feeling like an alien in an English school when I was eight, that set up my pride very early on. I think I'm very defensive, but I'm trying not to be like that anymore.

Because of its phantom nature, and despite elaborate defense mechanisms, the ego is very vulnerable and insecure, and it sees itself as constantly under threat. This, by the way, is the case even if the ego is outwardly very confident.

Narcissism and self-deception are survival mechanisms without which many of us might just jump off a bridge.

I can't remember who told me but I was advised early on not to Google myself or read things about myself... I don't read a lot but get the gist of what's been said from friends and family. It's good to avoid it if you want to be normal person.

Don't believe your friends when they ask you to be honest with them. All they really want is to be maintained in the good opinion they have of themselves.

I am uninterested in appearing in newspapers and on television. Many people think I am striking a pose - that I want to create a sense of shyness. But it's just not something I want to do. I overdosed.

I'm afraid I'm still trying to find that balance. Especially now that everyone wants a piece of me. I find that I have to become more and more reclusive, and pick and choose when I am public and when I am private.

I'm not going to be doing anything to hurt myself or my fans.

Self-love for ever creeps out, like a snake, to sting anything which happens to stumble upon it.

I try to not read about myself. I think it's easier to have it out of sight and out of mind.

You protect your being when you love yourself better. That's the secret.

What I hate is that not many people admit to having a big ego, but you have to - and there's nothing wrong with it.

Let's be honest: I call myself a titan. I've got issues.

I don't like to discuss my work in a lot of detail; I'm afraid of dissecting it in a way that is not good for me.

Vanity can apply to both insecurity and egotism. So I distance myself, because I feel everything.

I've gotten to a place where I'm better at curbing your ego, which usually happens when you're feeling super small and scared about whatever you're seeing, and you want to go read, 'Oh, I hear there's a really good article about me.' I've gotten better about knowing that's not going to end well, usually.

There is nothing about me that I wouldn't want anyone to know, but there is a part of me that I do want to keep private and personal just because that is what's going to keep me sane in the long run - making sure people don't know my every move.

I choose not to see my parents because I value myself - and they didn't value me or my mind.