QuoteProject
The egocentric is always frustrated, simply because the condition of self-perfection is self-surrender. There must be a willingness to die to the lower part of self, before there can be a birth to the nobler.
Fulton J. Sheen
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

True self-improvement requires letting go of ego and embracing humility.

This quote emphasizes the idea that personal growth and self-perfection cannot be achieved through selfishness and ego-centric behaviors. Instead, true transformation comes from a willingness to surrender one's lower instincts and desires, allowing for the emergence of a more noble and enlightened self. It suggests that only by letting go of our ego can we truly evolve and become better individuals.

Themes

Self-ImprovementEgoHumilityGrowthTransformation

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about overcoming personal challenges.

More from Fulton J. Sheen

Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?
Fulton J. SheenRead
A woman gets angry when a man denies his faults, because she knew them all along. His lying mocks her affection; it is the deceit that angers her more than the faults.
Fulton J. SheenRead
Many married women who have deliberately spurned the "hour" of childbearing are unhappy and frustrated. They never discovered the joys of marriage because they refused to surrender to the obligation of their state. In saving themselves, they lost themselves!
Fulton J. SheenRead
No one has ever laughed at a pun who did not see in the one word a twofold meaning. To materialists this world is opaque like a curtain; nothing can be seen through it. A mountain is just a mountain, a sunset just a sunset; but to poets, artists, and saints, the world is transparent like a window pane - it tells of something beyond....a mountain tells of the Power of God, the sunset of His Beauty, and the snowflake of His Purity.
Fulton J. SheenRead
The big print giveth, and the fine print taketh away.
Fulton J. SheenRead
Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.
Fulton J. SheenRead

Similar quotes

One is rarely an impulsive innovator after the age of sixty, but one can still be a very fine orderly and inventive thinker. One rarely procreates children at that age, but one is all the more skilled at educating those who have already been procreated, and education is procreation of another kind.
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
People don't really believe in words. Or rather, people believe in words only for a stretch of time. Then they start to look for action.
Volodymyr ZelenskyRead
He who has nothing—it has been said many times—has nothing to lose but his chains.
Pablo NerudaRead
Cut brambles long enough, Sprout after sprout, And the lotus will bloom Of its own accord: Already waiting in the clearing, The single image of light. The day you see this, That day you will become it.
Sun Bu'ErRead
It's a funny thing, the less people have to live for, the less nerve they have to risk losing nothing.
Zora Neale HurstonRead
Apt words have power to suage the tumors of a troubled mind.
John MiltonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.