A cure for narcissism in twenty-five words or less...

July 4, 2011 4:32 PM

I'm looking for quotes that basically convey - it's not about you / get over yourself.
posted by kitcat to Grab Bag (24 answers total)

"Don't be humble, you're not that great."

— Golda Meir

"You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do."

— Eleanor Roosevelt
posted by sockpup at 4:43 PM on July 4, 2011 [15 favorites]

"A modest man, but then he has so much to be modest about"
- (allegedly said by Churchill, about Clement Attlee; has been paraphrased in many ways)

It isn't exactly about narcissism, but is a great putdown (IMO) for a narcissist.
posted by vidur at 5:06 PM on July 4, 2011

Best answer: Don't know the source, but I've always liked "Get off that cross, we need the wood"
posted by Mchelly at 5:24 PM on July 4, 2011 [12 favorites]

That bit in Hitch-Hiker's Guide where you see your place in the universe? The name escapes me. It didn't work on Zaphod.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 5:27 PM on July 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

"You're obvliously suffering from delusions of adequacy" - Alexis Carrington, Dynasty
posted by MShades at 5:29 PM on July 4, 2011

There are a billion people in China. It's not easy to be an individual in a crowd of more than a billion people. Think of it. More than a BILLION people. That means even if you're a one-in-a-million type of guy, there are still a thousand guys exactly like you. ~A. Whitney Brown, The Big Picture

and, my favorite:

When science discovers the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to find they are not it. ~Bernard Baily
posted by patheral at 5:33 PM on July 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Other people's behavior is never about you."
posted by hworth at 5:37 PM on July 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's the Total Perspective Vortex, and Zaphod entered it in an alternate universe created for him, resulting in him perceiving (correctly but confusingly) that he WAS the center of the universe. /nerdery More details here.
posted by jeoc at 5:39 PM on July 4, 2011

"You are an idiot. My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it's not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy with their own. " - Buffy, "Earshot" Buffy the Vampire Slayer
posted by teleri025 at 6:07 PM on July 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has
his original ideas closer together.
- Georg Lichtenberg -

If people knew how hard I have to work to gain my mastery it
wouldn't seem wonderful at all.
- Michelangelo -
posted by Net Prophet at 6:08 PM on July 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

(BTW I can't vouch for the attributions. I just have a huge quote file that someone else put together many moons ago.)
posted by Net Prophet at 6:10 PM on July 4, 2011

I have a work colleague who says: " I got shit to do that ain't you, lady."

That was always my favourite. (And for the record, it was never directed at me.)
posted by LN at 6:14 PM on July 4, 2011

"Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story." (This is the name of a game.)
posted by NoraReed at 6:25 PM on July 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Come down off the cross, we can use the wood" can be attributed to Tom Waits in his song "Come On Up To The House" off the Mule Variations CD.

Mchelly is right, that's a perfect quote.
posted by elmer benson at 6:51 PM on July 4, 2011

"What other people think of you is none of your business."
posted by The otter lady at 7:12 PM on July 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

"can be attributed to Tom Waits"

that saying is a lot older than 1999. a great quote to be sure, but a fairly common one, at least down here in the south.
posted by nadawi at 8:23 PM on July 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's a lot older than 1996 as well, when Firewater released their album "Get off the cross, we need the wood for the fire."
posted by iamkimiam at 8:47 PM on July 4, 2011

Obvious, but...

"You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you" - Carly Simon
posted by SisterHavana at 9:14 PM on July 4, 2011

"This here's a zoo, and the keeper ain't you." Lou Reed, nice n' rhymey.
posted by Sara Anne at 9:33 PM on July 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. - Ecclesiastes
posted by elektrotechnicus at 10:08 PM on July 4, 2011

"Forget what you heard, it ain't your world!" - from the film Woo
posted by buzzv at 10:14 AM on July 5, 2011

"You just hate me cuz you ain't me."

---Busta Rhymes, Higher Learning.
posted by TheRedArmy at 12:21 PM on July 5, 2011

The cross one... I heard it this way. "How 'bout you get down off your cross, take the wood and nails, build a bridge and get over yourself."

My daughter says this all the time (not to me).
posted by patheral at 4:00 PM on July 5, 2011 [6 favorites]

My mother used to say, "Nobody is as interested in you as you are."
posted by Lexica at 9:34 PM on July 5, 2011