#narcissism

As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves. ↗

— Daniel J. Boorstin

#america #ancestors #been #beloved #echo

A current pejorative adjective is narcissistic. Generally, a narcissist is anyone better looking than you are, but lately the adective is often applied to those "liberals" who prefer to improve the lives of others rather than exploit them. Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the hightest altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to pay for our vast freedom not only to conform but to consume. ↗

— Gore Vidal

#narcissism #freedom

Hate is the complement of fear and narcissists like being feared. It imbues them with an intoxicating sensation of omnipotence. ↗

— Sam Vaknin

#narcissists #love

Love without sacrifice is like theft ↗

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

#love #manipulation #marriage #marriage-advice #narcissism

Half of the people lie with their lips; the other half with their tears ↗

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

#liars #manipulation #men-and-women #narcissism #narcissists

Since our technology is really just an extension of ourselves, we don’t have to have contempt for its manipulability in the way we might with actual people. It’s all one big endless loop. We like the mirror and the mirror likes us. To friend a person is merely to include the person in our private hall of flattering mirrors. ↗

— Jonathan Franzen

#mirrors #narcissism #technology #love