“Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially
competitive—is competitive by its very nature—while the other vices are
competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out
of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We
say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking,
but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or
better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or
clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is
the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the
rest.
The Christians are right: it is Pride which has been the
chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world
began. Other vices may sometimes bring people together: you may find
good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or
unchaste people. But Pride always means enmity—it is enmity. And not
only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.
In God you
come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably
superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that—and, therefore, know
yourself as nothing in comparison—you do not know God at all. As long as
you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down
on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down,
you cannot see something that is above you.”
― C.S. Lewis
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