"Virtue begins with understanding and is fulfilled by courage." - Demosthenes
Ego blinds us. Being a know-it-all prevents from us from becoming a "learn-it-all."
Ryan Holiday wrote Ego Is the Enemy. Here are some quotes that help remind us about the damage potential of ego.
"We can't work with other people if we've put up walls."
"Replace the temptations of ego with humility and discipline when we experience success."
"Your ego is not some power you're forced to satiate at every turn. It can be managed."
"What replaces ego is humility, yes- but rock-hard humility and confidence."
On (General) Sherman, "His realism allowed him to see a path through the South that others thought impossible. His entire theory of maneuver warfare rested on deliberately avoiding frontal assaults or shows of strength in the form of pitched battles."
"Among men who rise to fame and leadership two types are recognizable-those who are born with a belief in themselves and those in whom it is a slow growth dependent on actual achievement. To the men of the last type their own success is a constant surprise, and its fruits the more delicious."
"Arrogance and self-absorption inhibit growth." (We all know the expression, "There are none so blind as those who will not see."
"Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know." - Lao Tzu
"Strategic flexibility is not the only benefit of silence."
"Having authority is not the same as being an authority. Having the right and being right are not the same either."
"A nation is born stoic and dies epicurean." - Will Durant
"It is not 'Who do I want to be in life?" but "What is it that I want to accomplish in life?"
"The power of being a student is not just that it is an extended period of instruction, it also places the ego and ambition in someone else's hands."
"A real student is also his own teacher and his own critic."
"You can't learn if you think you already know."
"Passion typically masks a weakness. Its breathlessness and impetuousness and franticness are poor substitutes for discipline, for mastery, for strength, and perseverance." (Purpose over passion)
"Make the other people look good and you will do well."