AskSN

Favorite thinkers/ideas on ego and humility?

327c19b153

Thanks for the Kazantzakis recc. I will give it a look. 

As far as I have worked out (standing on the shoulders of giants) to me it all seems to be about 1) knowing yourself and your limits and respecting those limits. and then proving that you respect those limits with your behavior, rather than just saying you do 2) repairing what wrongs you have caused 3) keeping your promises 4) carrying your downside, that if you take risks you are the one who bears the cost of failure, not finding ways to push that others, no blaming others, asking for exceptions, making excuses, etc. 

As for Lao Tzu, he is a master for a reason. So many good ones that really make you think (paraphrasing):

1) The best is like water: it benefits all things and does not contend.
It dwells in low places that others avoid.
3) Rivers run to the sea because it lies below them.
Thus it becomes king of a hundred valleys.
4) I have three treasures: compassion, frugality, and not daring to be first under Heaven.



