February 12, 2025

GEJ

Business Woman

140+ Quotes About Narcissists to Help You Better Understand and Recognize the Behavior

Most people probably have heard quotes about narcissists and thought about particular people in their life at least once or twice. Narcissism is, unfortunately, not a totally uncommon characteristic or condition. It’s important to also know the official definition of narcissism, though — and to know that it is actually a real psychological diagnosis. According to the Mayo Clinic, narcissistic personality disorder is defined by “a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others.” The Mayo Clinic definition also goes on to explain how this confidence is often a mask hiding low self-esteem and extreme sensitivity to criticism.

If this sounds like someone in your life, it may be best to set some boundaries with that person in your life (or, if you’re close enough, to encourage them to seek help from professionals). Sometimes, though, understanding and dealing with narcissism is easier when you can hear someone else put it into words. That’s why there are so many quotes and stories about the different way that narcissistic people can affect your life. To give you some perspective, here are 140+ quotes about narcissists.

  • “A narcissist’s criticism is their autobiography.” ― M. Wakefield

  • “But that’s the thing about narcissists. They can try to fool you, with all their heart, but in the end, they’re just fooling themselves.” ― Ellie Fox

  • “When a toxic person can no longer control you, they will try to control how others see you. The misinformation will feel unfair, but you stay above it, trusting that other people will eventually see the truth just like you did.” ― Jill Blakeway

  • “When we meet and fall into the gravitational pull of a narcissist, we are entering a significant life lesson that involves learning how to create boundaries, self-respect, and resilience. Through trial and error (and a lot of pain), our connection with narcissists teaches us the necessary lessons we need to become mature empaths.” ― Mateo Sol

  • “Love doesn’t die a natural death. Love has to be killed, either by neglect or narcissism.” ― Frank Salvato

    Photo credit: Woman's Day/Getty Images

    Photo credit: Woman’s Day/Getty Images

  • “Since narcissists deep down feel themselves to be faultless, it is inevitable that when they are in conflict with the world they will invariably perceive the conflict as the world’s fault.” ― M. Scott Peck

  • “The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.” ― Robert Hughes

  • “The main condition for the achievement of love is the overcoming of one’s narcissism. The narcissistic orientation is one in which one experiences as real only that which exists within oneself, while the phenomena in the outside world have no reality in themselves, but are experienced only from the viewpoint of their being useful or dangerous to one. The opposite pole to narcissism is objectivity; it is the faculty to see other people and things as they are, objectively, and to be able to separate this objective picture from a picture which is formed by one’s desires and fears.” ― Erich Fromm

  • “When I look at narcissism through the vulnerability lens, I see the shame-based fear of being ordinary. I see the fear of never feeling extraordinary enough to be noticed, to be lovable, to belong, or to cultivate a sense of purpose.” ― Brené Brown

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

  • “I think writers are the most narcissistic people. Well, I musn’t say this, I like many of them, a great many of my friends are writers.” ― Sylvia Plath

  • “Hate is the complement of fear and narcissists like being feared. It imbues them with an intoxicating sensation of omnipotence.” ― Sam Vaknin

  • “The sadistic narcissist perceives himself as Godlike, ruthless and devoid of scruples, capricious and unfathomable, emotion-less and non-sexual, omniscient, omnipotent and omni-present, a plague, a devastation, an inescapable verdict.” ― Sam Vaknin

  • “Narcissists are consumed with maintaining a shallow false self to others. They’re emotionally crippled souls that are addicted to attention. Because of this they use a multitude of games, in order to receive adoration. Sadly, they are the most ungodly of God’s creations because they don’t show remorse for their actions, take steps to make amends or have empathy for others. They are morally bankrupt.” ― Shannon L. Alder

  • “I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.” ― Diana Vreeland

  • “I think a lot of self-importance is a product of fear. And fear, living in a sort of an un-self-examined fear based life, tends to lead to narcissism and self-importance.” — Moby

  • “Narcissism is the part of my personality that I am least proud of, and I certainly don’t like to see it highlighted in everybody else I meet.” — Ben Affleck

  • “Narcissism is not about self love. It’s a clinical trait that belies a deep sense of emptiness, low self-esteem, emotional detachment, self-loathing, extreme problems with intimacy.” — Drew Pinsky

  • “No one has probably helped me more with narcissism than my dog.” — Tucker Max

  • “Individualism. Narcissism. Value-free choices. These are all key elements in the decline of the practice of mutual accountability in Western churches, among clergy and laity alike.” — David Augsburger

  • “The silent killer of great men and women of achievement — particularly men, I don’t know why, maybe it’s the testosterone — I think it’s narcissism. Even more than hubris.” — James Woods

  • “You will never really see how toxic someone is until you breathe fresher air.” — Unknown

  • “Intuition — once you have had a narcissist in your life, you must develop your intuition and learn to listen to it and act accordingly.” — Tracy Malone

  • “Narcissistic love is riding on the rollercoaster of disaster filled with a heart full of tears.” — Sheree Griffin

    Photo credit: Woman's Day/Getty Images

    Photo credit: Woman’s Day/Getty Images

  • “A narcissist paints a picture of themselves as being the victim or innocent in all aspects. They will be offended by the truth. But what is done in the dark will come to light. Time has a way of showing people’s true colors.” — Karla Grimes

  • “A man who loves others based solely on how they make him feel, or what they do for him, is really not loving others at all — but loving only himself.” — Criss Jami

  • “If you hold on to hurt and anger with a narcissist, the children will have no normal parent. The narcissistic parent will use them as puppets, lovebomb, and abandon them. You are their only hope.” — Tracy Malone

  • “Relationships with narcissists are held in place by the hope of a ‘someday better,’ with little evidence to support it will ever arrive.” — Dr. Ramani Durvasula

  • “How starved you must have been that my heart became a meal for your ego.” — Amanda Torroni

  • “Narcissistic personality disorder is named for Narcissus, from Greek mythology, who fell in love with his own reflection. Freud used the term to describe persons who were self-absorbed, and psychoanalysts have focused on the narcissist’s need to bolster his or her self-esteem through grandiose fantasy, exaggerated ambition, exhibitionism, and feelings of entitlement.” ― Donald W. Black

  • “Narcissus weeps to find that his image does not return his love.” — Mason Cooley

  • “There is simply no winning with a narcissist. He will treat you so horribly that you will become withdrawn and depressed and then he will turn around and say, ‘You’re no fun anymore, you’re always so depressed. I need to be with someone more positive.’” — Susan Williams

  • “Children of narcissists learn that love is abuse. The narcissist teaches them that if someone displeases you, it is okay to harm them and call it love.” — M. Wakefield

  • “And we need to know what it is to be human if we are to avoid becoming narcissists.” — Alexander Lowen

  • “When narcissists behave in an exhibitionistic manner, they are seeking the same sort of admiration as toddlers, and for the same reasons. They want attention. Some examples include inappropriate dress, talking too loudly, or gesturing in expansive and space-intruding ways.” — Mark Ettensohn

  • “Half the pain in human life comes from gazing in mirrors.” — Marty Rubin

  • “No matter how socially skilled an extreme narcissist is, he has a major attachment dysfunction. The extreme narcissist is frozen in childhood.” — Samuel Lopez de Victoria

  • “Hate is the complement of fear and narcissists like being feared. It imbues them with an intoxicating sensation of omnipotence.” — Sam Vaknin

  • “There is a difference between supporting someone and feeding someone’s narcissism. One is support and the other is not.” — Fathom

  • “It is possible to have a strong self-love without any self-satisfaction, rather with a self-discontent which is the more intense because one’s own little core of egoistic sensibility is a supreme care.” George Elliot

  • “Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm, but the harm [that they cause] does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” – T. S. Eliot

  • “Being a narcissist isn’t easy when the question is not of loving your own image, but of recreating the self through deliberate acts of alienation.” – Orlan

    Photo credit: Woman's Day/Getty Images

    Photo credit: Woman’s Day/Getty Images

  • “Nobody can be kinder than the narcissist while you react to life on his terms.”
    — Elizabeth Bowen

  • “The narcissist devours people, consumes their output, and casts the empty, writhing shells aside.” — Sam Vaknin

  • “Have you ever been in a relationship with an individual who demands your attention incessantly and becomes depressed, sulky and even full of rage if your attention goes elsewhere? This is one of the earliest warning signs of a narcissist. Please understand healthy adults do not behave in such a way. This is where people who know the difference turn their back and walk away; they know that any person ringing them 10 times a day and demanding attention is not well. Unfortunately, many individuals, as I did, can mistake (or delude ourselves) that this high need for attention means we’re loved, missed and adored, or maybe we felt wrong in leaving or speaking up, as a result of our own deficient boundary function. Please be assured, this is not love; it’s the deadly calling card of the narcissist.” — Melanie Tonia Evans

  • “Self-awareness is not self-centeredness, and spirituality is not narcissism. ‘Know thyself’ is not a narcissistic pursuit.” — Marianne Williamson

  • “Narcissists often appear to be very confident, but a key feature of narcissism is low self-esteem. Narcissists display arrogance and exaggerate their achievements to hide this low self-esteem.” – Emily Guarnotta, PsyD

    Photo credit: Woman's Day/Getty Images

    Photo credit: Woman’s Day/Getty Images

  • “There’s a reason narcissists don’t learn from mistakes and that’s because they never get past the first step which is admitting that they made one.” – Jeffrey Kluger

  • “Narcissists have poor self-esteem, but they are typically very successful. They feel entitled; they’re self-important; they crave admiration and lack empathy. They are also exploitative and envious. The malignant types never forget a slight. They may kill you ten years later for cutting them off in traffic. But they act perfectly normal while plotting their revenge.” — Janet M. Tavakoli

  • “The difference between narcissism and self-love is a matter of depth. Narcissus falls in love not with the self, but with an image or reflection of the self with the persona, the mask. The narcissist sees himself through the eyes of another, changes his lifestyle to conform with what is admired by others, tailors his behavior and expression of feelings to what will please others. Narcissism is voluntary blindness, an agreement not to look beneath the surface.” — Sam Keen

  • “The lion is most handsome when looking for food.” — Rumi

  • “You can teach a narcissist to show up on time, but you can’t train them to listen once they get there.” ― Dr. Ramani Durvasula

  • “Narcissism falls along the axis of what psychologists call personality disorders…but by most measures, narcissism is one of the worst, if only because the narcissists themselves are so clueless.” – Jeffrey Kluger

  • “People, no matter the economic class, find ways to feed their narcissism.” – Lynne Tillman

  • “Please repair your narcissism before you start loving your neighbor as yourself.” ― Charles F. Glassman

  • “Parents are supposed to give the child back to herself with love. If they’ve got duct tape over their eyes because of narcissism, it doesn’t happen.” — Jane Fonda

  • “Narcissism is a reflexive turning towards the self because your childhood experiences taught you that others would not provide for your needs. A narcissist doesn’t trust that others will be there for them so they have to be there for themselves. This doesn’t leave much room for anyone else.” – Krista Jordan, PhD

    Photo credit: Woman's Day/Getty Images

    Photo credit: Woman’s Day/Getty Images

  • “He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.” — Benjamin Franklin

  • “What are narcissists looking for, after all? Just someone at their level that they can feel superior to.” — Luigina Sgarro

  • “A narcissist is someone who has a grandiose sense of self-importance, harbors obsessive fantasies of unbounded glory, feels rage or intense shame when criticized, expects special favors, and lacks empathy.” – Daniel Goleman

  • “Narcissistic abuse is not just that someone dumped you or who you had a little tiff with them. NA is psychological abuse and brainwashing using intermittent reward and punishment, coercive control and withholding normal empathetic, emotional reactions to lower your self esteem.” ― Alice Little

  • “My father was a textbook narcissist. If he didn’t like the narrative he’d start gaslighting you. He threatened the democracy of our family.” – Randy Rainbow

  • “There was nothing more unattractive than narcissism, she thought: nothing could transform beauty into a cloying, unattractive quality than that self-conscious appreciation of self.” — Alexander McCall Smith

  • “For some, life may be a playground to undermine the brainwaves of others or simply a vainglorious game with an armory of theatrics, illustrating only bleak self-deception, haughty narcissism, and dim deficiency in empathy.” ― Erik Pevernagie

    Photo credit: Woman's Day/Getty Images

    Photo credit: Woman’s Day/Getty Images

  • “The narcissist is like a bucket with a hole in the bottom: No matter how much you put in, you can never fill it up.” — Dr. Ramani Durvasula

  • “If you want to go from being adored to devalued in the blink of an eye, simply insult the narcissist.” – Tigress Luv

  • “I think narcissists are endlessly watchable. The way they view the world and the way they interact within the world. They have no concept of their behavior or how it might be affecting other people. So comedically, it’s a very fun type of character to play. They are bulls in a china shop, twenty-four seven.” – Michael Showalter

  • “I love narcissists — even more than they love themselves. You don’t have to buoy them up. They are their own razzle-dazzle show and you are the blessed, favored with a front-row seat.” – Patricia Marx

  • “You might as well bang your head into a brick wall if you expect the narcissist to be reasonable, empathetic or human in any way. If you sense or witness any of these traits, there is an ulterior motive. When the narcissist is being nice, it’s because they have something to gain.” — Tina Swithin

  • “That which he projects ahead of him as his ideal, is merely his substitute for the lost narcissism of his childhood ― the time when he was his own ideal.” ― Sigmund Freud

  • “Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism.” ― Sigmund Freud

  • “It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.” — Voltaire

  • “Americans are experiencing an epidemic in narcissistic behavior in a culture that is intrinsically self-conscious and selfish, and citizens are encouraged to pursue happiness and instant gratification of their personal desires.” ― Kilroy J. Oldster

    Photo credit: Woman's Day/Getty Images

    Photo credit: Woman’s Day/Getty Images

  • “I’m a recovering narcissist. I didn’t know I was a narcissist, actually. I thought narcissism meant you love yourself, and then someone told me there’s a flip side to it. So it’s actually drearier than self-love; it’s unrequited self-love.” ― Emily Levine

  • “People often discounted narcissism as relatively harmless because the term sometimes conjured the clichéd image of a vain man staring longingly at his reflection in a pool of water or a mirror.” ― David Baldacci

    Photo credit: Woman's Day/Getty Images

    Photo credit: Woman’s Day/Getty Images

  • “I wonder if the course of narcissism through the ages would have been any different had Narcissus first peered into a cesspool. He probably did.” ― Frank O’Hara, Early Writing

  • “Narcissists are said to be in love with themselves. But this is a fallacy. Narcissus is not in love with himself. He is in love with his reflection. There is a major difference between one’s True Self and reflected-self.” ― Sam Vaknin

  • “Even when he seems to be interacting with someone else, the narcissist is actually engaged in a self-referential discourse. To the narcissist, all other people are cardboard cutouts, two-dimensional animated cartoon characters, or symbols. They exist only in his inner universe. He is startled when they deviate from the script and prove to be complex and autonomous.” ― Sam Vaknin

  • “The narcissist enjoys being looked at and not looking back.” ― Mason Cooley

  • “When dealing with a narcissist, don’t defend yourself against attacks. Instead say, ‘Your attempt to portray me in a negative light is noted.’” ―Tina Swithin

  • “I have a very simple question to people who seem to suffer from excessive narcissism: Please name three other persons who are smarter and more capable than you, in the field you work in. In most cases they are utterly unable to answer that question honestly.” — Ingo Molnar

  • “Relationship with a narcissist in a nutshell: You will go from being the perfect love of their life, to nothing you do is ever good enough. You will give your everything and they will take it all and give you less and less in return. You will end up depleted, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and probably financially, and then get blamed for it.” — Bree Bonchay

  • “Narcissists install a mental filter in our heads a little bit at a time. . . . ‘Will he get upset if I do/say/think this? Will he approve/disapprove? Will he feel hurt by this?’ Until we can uninstall the narcissist-filter, our actions are controlled by narcissists to some degree.” – Sam Vaknin

  • “I have always been suspicious of romantic love. It looks too much like a narcissism shared by two.” – Rita Mae Brown

  • “You’re human. You’ll screw up. Denying that is crazy. Forgiving yourself has all the benefits of self-esteem without making you a narcissist that’s out of touch with reality.” – David D. Burns

  • “It is no wonder that narcissists — both men and women — are chauvinistic and conservative. They depend to such an extent on the opinions of people around them that, with time, they are transformed into ultra-sensitive seismographs of public opinion, barometers of prevailing fads and fashions, and guardians of conformity.” ― Sam Vaknin

    Photo credit: Woman's Day/Getty Images

    Photo credit: Woman’s Day/Getty Images

  • “Underneath the so-called narcissistic personality is definitely shame and the paralyzing fear of being ordinary.” – Brené Brown

  • “Narcissists look for new victims for the same reason that tigers look for new prey: they are hungry, constantly starved for adoration, admiration, acceptance, approval.” ― Sam Vaknin

  • “A narcissist wants you to adopt his version of himself.” – Hart Pomerantz

  • “Narcissists are like parasitic bugs that leech onto you and essentially suck the life out of you, then when you are no longer useful, they discard you.” – Silvi Saxena, MBA, MSW, LSW, CCTP, OSW-C

  • “Narcissism is a cover for a very weak self-image. They often want attention in any form, good or bad. Although they love adoration, the worst pain for a narcissist is to not be noticed. They will say or do outrageous things to be noticed if they are feeling ignored.” — Dian Grier, LCSW

  • “Withhold admiration from a narcissist and be disliked. Give it and be treated with indifference.” — Mason Cooley

  • “Narcissism has more in common with self-hatred than with self-admiration.” – Christopher Lasch

  • “Seeking admiration is like a drug for narcissists. In the long run it becomes difficult because others won’t applaud them, so they always have to search for new acquaintances from whom they get the next fix.” – Mitja D. Back

  • “In the early stages of narcissist abuse you will be angry enough to think crazy things. Be strong. They are not worth your anger. Get help and heal that is the way to peace.” ― Tracy Malone

  • The ability to love depends on one’s capacity to emerge from narcissism.” ― Erich Fromm

  • They provoke you but when you defend yourself, they cry victim.” ― Mitta Xinindlu

  • “Love is intermittent reinforcement with spouses and children alike. The child is love-bombed when the narcissist feels the child reflects their false self. The moment the child fails to do so, the narcissistic parent blithely discards them.” ― M. Wakefield

  • “Narcissism and self-deception are survival mechanisms without which many of us might just jump off a bridge.” — Todd Solondz

  • “Most of the narcissists are geniuses and masters of Psychology. But they are using their knowledge to eradicate, rather than to help humanity.” ― Mwanandeke Kindembo

  • “Narcissism and self-deception are survival mechanisms without which many of us might just jump off a bridge.” — Todd Solondz

  • “Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.” — Frank Leahy

  • “Big egos are big shields for lots of empty space.” — Diane Black

  • “The only changes a narcissist makes are masks and victims.” – Unknown

  • “The narcissist, cut off from her spirituality, is one who spends unquantifiable energy supporting and maintaining and utterly and completely fake self, in denial of one’s true self, trading it for glamour to compensate for a core of being that is simply wracked, a deep dark cold void; using and abusing others to maintain and sustain the false state. This fake self is contrived in absentia from the connectivity that even the most unaware take for granted.” ― Stacey Scott Mae

  • “When a toxic person can no longer control you, they will try to control how others see you. The misinformation will feel unfair, but stay above it, trusting that other people will eventually see the truth just like you did.” ― Jill Blakeway

  • “How starved you must have been that my heart became a meal for your ego.” ― Amanda Torroni

  • “Vanity and narcissism — the compulsive need to be admired and praised — undermine one’s courage, for one then fights on someone else’s conviction rather than one’s own.” — Rollo May

  • “The ultimate obscenity is not caring, not doing something about what you feel, not feeling! Just drawing back and drawing in; becoming narcissistic.” — Rod Serling

  • “There’s nothing that makes you more miserable (or less interesting) than self-absorption.” — Timothy Keller

  • “We’re stronger and braver together. Do not let this world and this narcissistic culture make competitors out of the very people who are meant to be your comrades in arms.” — Beth Moore

  • “Learning to spot narcissists and deal with their destructive behavior can save you the world of hurt that awaits anyone who mistakes the near enemy for a friend.” — Martha Beck

  • “Meditation is a way to be narcissistic without hurting anyone.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  • “The narcissist doesn’t see other human beings.” ― Stacey Scott Mae

  • “Throughout most of our history, nothing — not flood, famine, plague, or new weapons — has endangered humanity one-tenth as much as the narcissistic ego, with its self-aggrandizing presumptions and its hell-hound spawn of fear and greed.” — Tom Robbins

  • “A victim of circumstance is a casualty. A victim of convenience is a narcissist.” — Alan Robert Neal

  • “Narcissist: psychoanalytic term for the person who loves himself more than his analyst; considered to be the manifestation of a dire mental disease whose successful treatment depends on the patient learning to love the analyst more and himself less.” — Thomas Szasz

  • “Ultimately there is no power to narcissistic, self-indulgent thinking. Authentic thinking originates with an encounter with the world.” — Abraham Joshua Heschel

  • “The more you make this world about you, the more miserable you will be.” — Matt Chandler

  • “There’s a definition of narcissism that when a parent is narcissistic, instead of the child seeing himself reflected in the mother’s face and the mother’s joy, the child of the narcissistic parent feels like, ‘What can I do to make her okay, to make her happy?'” — Susan Sullivan

  • “Self-love forever creeps out, like a snake, to sting anything which happens to stumble upon it.” — Lord Byron

  • “America was built on rugged individualism, and today that has evolved into a culture of narcissism. But God didn’t create you to live for you. If you want to follow Jesus, you have to put aside your selfish ambition.” — Rick Warren

    Photo credit: Woman's Day/Getty Images

    Photo credit: Woman’s Day/Getty Images

  • “The greater our own level of narcissism, the more we detest it in others.” — Steve Maraboli

  • “Narcissism really spreads its wings and soars on Twitter. It’s like watching a dragon hatch and learn to fly.” — Dave Anthony

  • “I can never tell what I’m doing when I’m in the middle of publication because I have no confidence. I have terrible self-esteem, along with boundless narcissism.” — Anne Lamott

  • “For the most part people are not curious except about themselves.” — John Steinbeck

  • “That’s what modern narcissism really is—a pernicious mix of qualities defined by three words that start with self: selfishness, self-absorption, and self-importance.” ― David Sirota

  • “It is especially painful when narcissists suffer memory loss because they are losing parts of the person they love most.” — David Brooks

  • “Leave your pride, ego, and narcissism somewhere else. Reactions from those parts of you will reinforce your children’s most primitive fears.” — Henry Cloud

  • “As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves.” — Daniel J. Boorstin

  • “Regrets? I think everyone has regrets, and people who say they haven’t are either liars or narcissists.” — Lee Radiziwill

  • “The very wealthy and the very famous have a much closer affinity with the indigent street person than with the rest of us. There’s the narcissism, the addiction, even the outlandish dress. Often they don’t put great value in relationships.” — Drew Pinsky

  • “The best strategy is to make the narcissist feel wanted and appreciated. Meeting negativity with more negativity fuels the narcissist’s need to defend. Instead, defuse the interaction by acting on insight and attempt to make your own needs known in a calm, non-confrontational way. When dealing with a narcissist who knows no boundaries in his demands, make space for yourself by saying “no” in a kind manner in moments of calm.” ― Mark Ettensohn

  • “A Narcissist will never admit they have a problem, if confronted with their own bad behavior they will do their very best to make people believe they are the victim.” ― Harvey Stuarts

  • “Self-love depressed becomes self-loathing.” — Sally Kempton

  • “I mean, if a narcissist can’t recognize he’s a narcissist, how on earth do you treat his narcissism?” ― Elle Kennedy

  • “You give up your narcissism, your egotism. That’s how you achieve chemistry.” — Nick Nolte

  • “Self-love seems so often unrequited.” — Anthony Powell

  • “Before you think you are surrounded by idiots, make sure that you don’t suffer from narcissism.” ― Giannis Delimitsos

  • “Even though friends say they are interested in your life, they never really want to talk about you as much as you want them to.” ― Charise Mericle Harper

  • “If I had it to do all over again . . . I wouldn’t change a thing.’. . . the final expression of narcissism, the last gesture of self-congratulation.” — Steve Erickson

  • “If people are really narcissistic or have a need to be seen as more than they really are, or to be admired as having it all together, then they cannot be followed and trusted by others.” — Henry Cloud

  • “That probably greatest of narcissistic wounds — not to have been loved just as one truly was — cannot heal without the work of mourning.” — Alice Miller

  • “The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.” — Bertrand Russell

  • “I like to be admired from afar, and then complimented up close.” Gena Showalter

  • “Where there is much pride or much vanity, there will also be much revengefulness.” Arthur Schopenhauer

  • “Ego is borne of the need to ‘prove’ oneself instead of making the choice to ‘be’ oneself.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough