"Certainly the most destructive vice, if you like, that a person can have - more than pride, which is supposedly the number one of the cardinal sins - is self-pity. I think self-pity is the worst possible emotion anyone can have, and the most destructive.
It is, to slightly paraphrase what Wilde said about hatred - and I think actually hatred’s a subset of self-pity, not the other way round - it destroys everything around it except itself. Self-pity will destroy relationships, it will destroy anything that’s good, it will fulfil all the prophesies it makes and leave only itself.
And it’s so simple to imagine that one is hard done by, and that things are unfair, and that one is under-appreciated, and that if only one had had a chance of this or only one had had a chance at that, things would have gone better. You would be happy if only this. That one is unlucky. All those things - and some of them may well even be true - but to pity oneself as a result of them is to do oneself an enormous disservice." - Stephen Fry.
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It is, to slightly paraphrase what Wilde said about hatred - and I think actually hatred’s a subset of self-pity, not the other way round - it destroys everything around it except itself. Self-pity will destroy relationships, it will destroy anything that’s good, it will fulfil all the prophesies it makes and leave only itself.
And it’s so simple to imagine that one is hard done by, and that things are unfair, and that one is under-appreciated, and that if only one had had a chance of this or only one had had a chance at that, things would have gone better. You would be happy if only this. That one is unlucky. All those things - and some of them may well even be true - but to pity oneself as a result of them is to do oneself an enormous disservice." - Stephen Fry.
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I must not dwell anymore, on past or present negative circumstances. All that matters is the future.
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