Be Nobody

When it comes to achieving happiness in life, obsession with the self has traditionally been identified as the problem, not the solution.

“Men have differed as regards what people you ought

Our greatest joy comes when we vacate ourselves and give ourselves over to something or someone else. It is when we manage to “stand outside of ourselves” (exstasis) that we experience ecstasy.

Narcissism appears realistically to represent the best way of coping with the tensions and anxieties of modern life, and the prevailing social conditions therefore tend to bring out narcissistic traits that are present, in varying degrees, in everyone.4

to be unselfish to—whether it was only your own family, or your fellow countrymen, or every one. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first. Selfishness has never been admired.”10 Until now, perhaps—and much to our detriment.

Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself at all.