92 Ego Quotes to Help You Become Less Egocentric and More Well-Rounded

The ego is either overlooked as unnecessary to speak about or as completely unchangeable. But in reality, your ego is malleable. It needs to be kept under control for the sake of personal development. To help keep your ego in check, here are 92 quotes on becoming less egocentric.

The ego has been a source of analysis in psychology for centuries. It is what we become aware of when we think about ourselves. It is also our sense of self that we usually try to project toward others.

But the relationship between your ego and your reality can be a source of inner turmoil. When you use your ego to justify your negative actions, you prevent yourself from holding yourself accountable and thereby developing your character.

It becomes important, therefore, to keep your ego in check for the sake of your personal progress. Keeping your ego under control will also help you develop a sense of empathy for other people around you. To assist you with this endeavor, here are 92 quotes to help you become less egocentric and more well-rounded.

Ray Dalio's quote: “Don’t worry about looking good; worry about achieving your goal.” | Image: AmoDays

WHAT IS EGO?

“It’s the sense of superiority and certainty that exceeds the bounds of confidence and talent.” — Ryan Holiday

“All ego really is, is our opinions, which we take to be solid, real, and the absolute truth about how things are.” — Pema Chödrön

“To me, the ego is the habitual and compulsive thought processes that go through everybody’s mind continuously. External things like possessions or memories or failures or successes or achievements. Your personal history.” — Eckhart Tolle

“The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self.” — Wayne Dyer

“Your ego is your self-image created by thought. It’s your social mask requiring validation because it lives in fear of losing its sense of identity." — Thibaut

Maxime Lagacé's quote: “Dissolve your ego before it dissolves your self.” | Image: AmoDays

QUOTES THAT GIVE ADVICE ON KEEPING YOUR EGO IN CHECK

“If you want to improve, you must be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” — Epictetus

“Dissolve your ego before it dissolves your self.” — Maxime Lagacé

“You’re not as good as you think. You don’t have it all figured out. Stay focused. Do better.” — Ryan Holiday

“Destroy your illusions so you can see reality. Destroy your fears so you can take risks. Destroy your ego so you can see life.” — Maxime Lagacé

“Don’t worry about looking good; worry about achieving your goal.” — Ray Dalio

Epictetus's quote: “If you want to improve, you must be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” | Image: AmoDays

“Your ego screams for people to acknowledge you. But you must do nothing. Take it. Eat it until you’re sick. Endure it. Quietly brush it off and work harder.” — Ryan Holiday

“Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

“Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance, and be ready to let it go.” — Marcus Aurelius

“The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.” — Albert Einstein

“The gulf left by the absence of ego is quickly filled with knowledge.” — Shane Parrish

Maxime Lagacé's quote: “Destroy your illusions so you can see reality. Destroy your fears so you can take risks. Destroy your ego so you can see life.” | Image: AmoDays

“Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you.” — Andrew Murray

“When the ego dies, the soul awakes.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“Rule your mind or it will rule you.” — Buddhist proverb

“Always keep your ego in check and not be afraid to listen. Listening is a great art form.” — Clint Eastwood

Ryan Holiday's quote: “You’re not as good as you think. You don’t have it all figured out. Stay focused. Do better.” | Image: AmoDays

“Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.” — Colin Powell

“You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak.” — George Clooney

“Forget about winning and losing, forget about pride and pain.” — Bruce Lee

“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” — Stephen King

“Celebrate, but not too loudly. Be proud, but not for too long.” — Maxime Lagacé

Thibaut's quote: “Your ego is your self-image created by thought. It’s your social mask requiring validation because it lives in fear of losing its sense of identity." | Image: AmoDays

QUOTES THAT DESCRIBE THE NATURE OF THE EGO

“A bad day for your ego is a great day for your soul.” — Jillian Michaels

“Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.” — St. Vincent de Paul

“Ego is false confidence, self-respect is true confidence.” — Naval Ravikant

“None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.” — Benjamin Whichcote

“My opponent is my teacher, my ego is my enemy.” — Renzo Gracie

Wayne Dyer's quote: “The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self.” | Image: AmoDays

“The bigger your heart, the more you love, the more you control your life. The bigger your ego, the more you’re scared, the more others control your life.” — Maxime Lagacé

“The ego’s job is to kill everything but itself.” — Byron Katie

“All you need to know and observe in yourself is this: Whenever you feel superior or inferior to anyone, that’s the ego in you.” — Eckhart Tolle

“The ultimate aim of the ego is not to see something but to be something." — Muhammad Iqbal

A man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress.” — Ayn Rand

Eckhart Tolle's quote: “To me, the ego is the habitual and compulsive thought processes that go through everybody’s mind continuously. External things like possessions or memories or failures or successes or achievements. Your personal history.” | Image: AmoDays

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” — Harry S. Truman

The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.” — Albert Einstein

“He that is proud eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle.” — William Shakespeare

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” — Richard Feynman

“The walls of pride are high and wide, can’t see over to the other side.” — Bob Dylan

Pema Chödrön's quote: “All ego really is, is our opinions, which we take to be solid, real, and the absolute truth about how things are.” | Image: AmoDays

EGO QUOTES THAT SUPPORT HUMILITY

“We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility.” — Rabindranath Tagore

“Let us be more simple and less vain.” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it.” — Criss Jami

“When ego is lost, limit is lost. You become infinite, kind, beautiful.” — Harbhajan Singh Yogi

“The ego seeks to divide and separate. Spirit seeks to unify and heal.” — Pema Chödrön

Ryan Holiday's quote: “It’s the sense of superiority and certainty that exceeds the bounds of confidence and talent.” | Image: AmoDays

“We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.” — Steven Pressfield

“Receive without pride, let go without attachment.” — Marcus Aurelius

“The foundation of the Buddha’s teachings lies in compassion, and the reason for practicing the teachings is to wipe out the persistence of ego, the number-one enemy of compassion.” — Dalai Lama

“Pride makes us do things well. But it is love that makes us do them to perfection.” — H. Jackson Brown Jr

HUMOROUS EGO QUOTES

“On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.” — Michel de Montaigne

Ryan Holiday's quote: “Your ego screams for people to acknowledge you. But you must do nothing. Take it. Eat it until you’re sick. Endure it. Quietly brush it off and work harder.” | Image: AmoDays

“Flattery is all right so long as you don’t inhale.” — Adlai Stevenson

“Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called ‘Ego.’” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“The loudest in the room is the weakest one in the room.” — Frank Lucas

“Whenever the world throws rose petals at you, which thrill and seduce the ego, beware. The cosmic banana peel is suddenly going to appear underfoot to make sure you don’t take it all too seriously, that you don’t fill up on junk food.” — Anne Lamott

“A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.” — Benjamin Franklin

Rainer Maria Rilke's quote: “Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.” | Image: AmoDays

“It’s hard to be humble when you are as great as I am.” — Muhammad Ali

I like the moment when I break a man’s ego.” — Bobby Fischer

“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

“Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.” — John Lennon

“I don’t care what you think unless it is about me.” — Kurt Cobain

Marcus Aurelius's quote: “Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance, and be ready to let it go.” | Image: AmoDays

“Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it is dark.” — Zen proverb

“We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glowworm.” — Winston Churchill

“There’s no ego when you’re a ukulele player. “ — Jake Shimabukuro

PROFOUND EGO QUOTES

“Silence is the respite of the confident and strong.” — Ryan Holiday

“Impressing people is utterly different from being truly impressive.” — John Boyd

Albert Einstein's quote: “The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.” | Image: AmoDays

“I have never seen a greater monster or miracle than myself.” — Michel de Montaigne

“Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.” — Marina Abramovic

“If you never smile, you’re too serious. If you never help, you’re narcissist. If you never give, you never love.” — Maxime Lagacé

“The offspring of riches: pride, vanity, ostentation, arrogance, tyranny.” — Mark Twain

Shane Parrish's quote: “The gulf left by the absence of ego is quickly filled with knowledge.” | Image: AmoDays

“All a man has is pride. Sometimes you have it so much it is a sin. We have all done things for pride that we knew were impossible. We didn’t care. But a man must implement his pride with intelligence and care.” — Ernest Hemingway

SHORT EGO QUOTES

“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.” — Aesop

“Ego takes everything personally.” — Eckhart Tolle

“Egotism sucks us down like the law of gravity.” — Cyril Connolly

“The ego is a veil between humans and God. In prayer all are equal.” — Rumi

Mahatma Gandhi's quote: “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” | Image: AmoDays

“Pride goes before destruction.” — Aesop

“There are two kinds of egotists: Those who admit it, and the rest of us.” — Laurence J. Peter

“Men learn while they teach.” — Seneca

Buddhist proverb: “Rule your mind or it will rule you.” | Image: AmoDays

“Ego chases comfort when the soul simply needs meaning.” — Maxime Lagacé

“Ego trip: a journey to nowhere.” — Robert Half

“Ego is the enemy.” — Ryan Holiday

“Be capable of negating your ego.” — Robert Greene

“The ego isn’t a real thing, it’s just the unexamined mind.” — Thibaut

Clint Eastwood's quote: “Always keep your ego in check and not be afraid to listen. Listening is a great art form.” | Image: AmoDays

“It’s better to be ignorant than wrong.” — Shane Parrish

“Outcomes over ego.” — Shane Parrish

“Fools try to make themselves bigger. The wise try to make themselves smaller.” — Maxime Lagacé

“We’d rather protect our ego than be happy.” — Shane Parrish

“Fragile egos make for fragile friendships.” — The Stoic Emperor

Colin Powell's quote: “Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.” | Image: AmoDays

“Truth above everything.” — Naval Ravikant

“Drop ego and listen. Empathize.” — Naval Ravikant

“Ego is a drug. Use in moderation, if at all.” — Lex Fridman

The ego can serve an important purpose. When you use it correctly, it can help you build confidence in yourself. It can also help you develop meaningful relationships that help develop your character.

By keeping the ego in control, you make space for other character traits to come to the fore. This will help you become a more well-rounded and empathetic person.

If these quotes helped you work on controlling your ego, you'll enjoy these quotes on setting yourself free from jealousy.