#ego

Nay," she said stubbornly. "I have just been told that the only chance I have for freedom is in your hands and by all that is holy, you will deliver me my freedom or I shall see to it that you live out the rest of your life in merciless misery." He gaped at her. On any other man such an expression would have looked foolish, but to credit Lord Stryder, even when taken by surprise, he still managed to carry off an air of supreme authority and handsomeness. "I beg your pardon? Have you gone completely mad?" "Not I, but rather the king you love so well. It appears he would see us marry." "My hairy arse." She gave him a droll stare. "That is much more information about your person, Lord Stryder, than I care to know. ↗

— Kinley MacGregor

#kinley-macgregor #rowena #stryder #freedom

His eyes defiant and smoldering, Braden held his sword aimed at the MacDouglas’s throat. “To get to her, you’ll have to come through me.” “You want to die for her?” Robby asked. “Aye,” Braden said without hesitation. He glanced at her and for the first time she saw the love in his eyes. “I will die for her. ↗

— Kinley MacGregor

#claiming-the-highlander #kinley-macgregor #robby #love

I, like balloon animal hacks everywhere, can only make one animal so far. It is a LEGO version of the Island of Dr. Moreau, wherein I have brick-engineered a pig-camel, a dog-camel, and a camel with wheels. These monstrosities are quickly torn apart, and I wonder if I have some unresolved camel issues. ↗

— Jonathan Bender

#lego #love

However low he may fall, a man can never deny himself the delight of feeling cleverer, more powerful or even better fed than his companions. ↗

— Maxim Gorky

#men

The taste for glory can make ordinary men behave in extraordinary ways. ↗

— Tahir Shah

#ego #glory #men

We mistakenly assume that bodily survival has a higher precedence than ego survival. This is simply not generally true. Ego will happily destroy the body for its own sake. Look at overweight executives headed for heart attacks on the way to getting their pictures in Fortune or anorexic models suffering slow starvation on their way to getting their pictures in Vogue. Protecting ego is the general case. ↗

— Karl Marlantes

#ego #motivation #motivational

This philistinism of interpretation is more rife in literature than in any other art. For decades now, literary critics have understood it to be their task to translate the elements of the poem or play or novel or story into something else. Sometimes a writer will be so uneasy before the naked power of his art that he will install within the work itself - albeit with a little shyness, a touch of the good taste of irony - the clear and explicit interpretation of it. Thomas Mann is an example of such an overcooperative author. In the case of more stubborn authors, the critic is only too happy to perform the job. ↗

— Susan Sontag

#allegory #criticism #art

The irony of Christianity is that believers get so angry, and self righteous toward other Christians who sin differently than they do. Christianity is like one large fraternity where brother and sisterhood is tested by hazing. ↗

— Shannon L. Alder

#criticism #ego #hazing #judgement #religion-literature

If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that... I believe in what I do, and I'll say it. ↗

— John Lennon

#being #believe #call #egomaniac #i

No man in public position can, under penalty of forfeiting the right to the respect of those whose regard he most values, fail as the opportunity comes to do all that in him lies for peace. ↗

— Theodore Roosevelt

#peace #respect