“We all need to overcome the basic egocentricity of life, the inborn feeling that “the world revolves around me.” Whenever we view others only in terms of how they affect us, we are in big trouble.” (Henry Cloud and John Townsend)
“Unfortunately, we live in a world that is individualistic to a great extent, where love has been mostly estranged and other egocentric sentiments prevail. However, egocentric individualism does not bring real happiness, even though it promises dominance over the world. True happiness derives only from love. Only love toward our fellow human being and for God fills our hearts with solace, gratification and true and unshakeable happiness. It brings us closer to one another, unifies us, makes us support each other, obliterates loneliness, and gives meaning to life and our struggles.” (Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew)
“… an egocentric worldview reflects a distorted understanding of faith: “The opposite of love is often called hatred. But its real name is egoism. This is the denial of the Triune God who is a koinonia (a communion) of love… Any spirituality that is devoid of the element of universality, of the struggle and agony for the salvation of “all the world” is a crippled spirituality.” (Archbishop Anastasios of Albania)
“But the greatest danger is self-love, egocentricity, enslavement to our ego, worship of our individual interests, those of the family, the locality, the nation. The antidote to this is justice, together with mutual support and self sacrifice. The secret of finding one’s self is to offer it. Emphasis on and the experience of this value remains the Church’s greatest contribution: support for the grieving, even if they are themselves responsible for mistakes and omissions. No other institution can offer love and self-sacrifice. To the classic “cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I am), the Church, drawing on the best pages of its history, adds :”I love therefore I am”, based on the model of the existence of the Holy Trinity in love and interpenetration.” (Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana)
“Divine love does not tolerate egoism. When we fall, we are empty and have no one that is close to us but our own self. We embrace the self and guard it closely, not permitting anyone to insult it, wanting everyone to think well of us. At the same time we do not notice the kind of life we live, what we do, or how we do it. We do not notice because we are so immersed in our selves…For if the ego is not dead, we cannot become one with God.” (Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica)