If some really acute observer made as much of egotism as Freud has made of sex, people would forget a good deal about sex and find the explanation for everything in egotism.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The author suggests that if egotism were studied as intensely as sex, it would explain most human behavior.
- In plain terms
- If we studied selfishness as much as sex, we would understand more.
- What can you take from it?
- Self-interest often drives human behavior more than acknowledged.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does ego explain everything?
- Why focus on sex over ego?
Another view
The comparison reduces complex human traits to a single driver.
More from Wallace Stevens
Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.
Permalink to quote #12 One might have thought of sight, but who could think Of what it sees, for all the ill it sees? Speech found the ear, for all the evil sound, But the dark itali…
Permalink to quote #14 This will make widows wince. But fictive things Wink as they will. Wink most when widows wince.
Permalink to quote #11
Related quotes
Everybody has an ego.
Kirk DouglasKirk Douglas quote #7 L'amour-propre est le plus grand de tous les flatteurs.
Francois de La RochefoucauldFrancois de La Rochefoucauld quote #3 Egoisten sind wir alle, der eine mehr, der andere weniger. Der eine lasst seinen Egoismus nackend laufen, der andere hangt ihm ein Mantelchen um.
August von KotzebueAugust von Kotzebue quote #4