Nothing

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.

~Friedrich Nietzsche

You will not persuade me

"You will not persuade me with appeals to my intellectual vanity."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

Remain hungry

Remain hungry but do not start begging.

~Turkish Proverb

It is better

It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.

~Delores Ibarruri

Better

Better a living beggar than a buried emperor.

~Jean de la Fontaine

As for begging

As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg.

~Oscar Wilde

Pride, envy, avarice

Pride, envy, avarice - these are the sparks have set on fire the hearts of all men.

~Dante Alighieri

Do not feed your ego

Do not feed your ego and your problems, with your attention. ...Slowly, surely, the ego will lose weight, until one fine day it will be nothing but a thin ghost of its former self. You will be able to see right through it, to the divine presence that shines in each of us.

~Eknath Easwaran

There is no room

There is no room for God in him who is full of himself.

~Hasidic saying

He is

He is a self-made man and worships his creator.

~John Bright