pride
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Bernard Mandeville argued that the “private vices” of envy and pride are, in fact, “public virtues” in that they stimulate industry and invention, and Hume wrote that the “pleasure of luxury and the profit of commerce roused men from their indolence”, leading them to advances in their various enterprises.
Neil Postman -
At the moment of doing a good deed, resisting temptation, or coming from Confession, we think we are good. In other words, we commit a sin of pride, putting ourselves above others because we cannot forgo the comparison. We pity the sinners who are worse than we are. Of what value then is virtue? Unaware that I was treading the path of St. Augustine, I had hit upon one of Christianity’s key problems.
Czesław Miłosz -
Little Prince: “You confuse everything… You’ve got it all mixed up! … I know a planet inhabited by a red-faced gentleman. He’s never smelled a flower. He’s never looked at a star. He’s never loved anyone. He’s never done anything except add up numbers. And all day long he says over and over, just like you, “I’m a serious man! I’m a serious man!” And that puffs him up with pride. But he’s not a man at all - he’s a mushroom!”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry